Ian Keatley has been appointed as the Director of Music for Christ Church Cathedral, a post he will take up on 1 February 2012. Ian is currently Director of Music at Westminster Abbey Choir School and was previously Deputy Master of Music at the Chapels Royal, H M Tower of London.
From 2004 – 2006 he was Organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey where he played for a number of Royal and State Occasions including the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II and State memorial services for former Prime Minister Lord Callaghan and comedian Ronnie Barker.
Born in Belfast in 1982, Ian Keatley was a chorister at the Parish Church of St George for seven years. As a chorister, he did much solo work with Opera Northern Ireland and with BBC Radio 4. In 1996, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Methodist College Belfast and, also, at St George’s – later becoming Assistant Organist there. In 1999, he accompanied the choristers of St George’s for a CD recording (on the Lammas label) produced by Dr. Barry Rose.
In September, 1999, Ian moved to Wells to take up a position as countertenor Choral Scholar at the Cathedral. At the same time, he completed his A-Levels at Downside Abbey School and studied organ with Jeremy Filsell in London, and singing with Ashley Stafford in Oxford.
For two years, Ian was Assistant Director of Music at Croydon Parish Church and, in 2003, was awarded the Haigh Prize for organ playing. He spent four years at the Royal College of Music (RCM) and two as Organ Scholar at Southwark Cathedral – where he founded the Merbecke Choir; a group of male and female singers, all under 25, who perform both sacred and secular music. Ian has given recitals in Southwark Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Wells Cathedral, St Albans Cathedral, St John’s and Clare Colleges, Cambridge, and Magdalene and The Queen’s Colleges, Oxford. In September, 2004, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey.
In 2004 he graduated from the Royal College of Music where he was a prize winner for Organ Performance.
Ian often performs in master classes and college concerts. He played continuo for the RCM’s Baroque Ensemble’s performance of the Christmas Oratorio conducted by Peter Schreier. He was the soloist in Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, at St Stephen’s, Gloucester Road, with the Fidelio Ensemble. In 2009, Ian performed an organ and bagpipe duet recital with Her Majesty’s The Queen’s Piper at Westminster Abbey, a first for the recital series at the Abbey!