A Long History of Music Making
If you would like to join any of our choirs, please contact our Director of Music: Dr Rachel Branston
We are a very merry group of singers who simply love making music together. Whether you are an experienced sight-reader or someone who just loves to sing the melody, there is a place for you here.
Bishop John de Grandisson
A choir has helped to lead worship in our parish church since 1337, when Bishop John de Grandisson installed a grand collegiate choir of forty men and boys.
They were highly trained and sang complex, polyphonic music.
On Christmas Eve 1545, the original college was dissolved under Henry VIII’s edict.
While the medieval choir came to an end, its school was successfully preserved by Royal Charter and renamed ‘The King’s Newe Grammer Schole’.
Our Choirs Today
Today, our musical tradition is as alive as ever! We have several ways to get involved in singing, catering to all comfort levels and styles.
- The Main Church Choir: A solid, four-part traditional choir that sings for worship each week. We enjoy the challenge of learning new music, managing anthems, and singing descants for the services. Most members in this choir read music.
- Choral Evensong: Held on the fourth Sunday of each month, keeping our beautiful traditional choral heritage alive.
Our Pop-Up Choir and Children's Choir
- The ‘Pop-Up’ Choir: Meeting for a more informal service on the second Sunday of each month, this group is far more relaxed musically. It is a space where people can just enjoy singing the melodies to modern worship songs while the organ takes a rest!
- The Children’s Choir: This group meets every Thursday afternoon during term time and joins the main services several times a year.
The Music Making Team
Mr Michael Farley - Organist
Michael has served as our organist at the Collegiate Church of St Mary for over thirty years, bringing deep musical continuity to our worship. He has the ability to make the organ sing in a totally uplifting manner and everyone loves his playing. Alongside his lifelong career as a parish church organist and choirmaster, Michael is one of the UK’s premier master organ builders. Established in 1985, his renowned business, Michael Farley Organ Builders, is based nearby at his workshops in Colaton Raleigh. From there, Michael and his dedicated team of craftsmen have built, restored, and tuned over 350 pipe organs. Their work stretches from delicate historical gems in rural Devon country churches to massive cathedral restorations across the UK, and even custom-built new instruments overseas in Malta and Gozo. We are incredibly fortunate to have a master craftsman at the keys who not only plays our magnificent church organ each week but also meticulously cares for it.
Dr. Rachel Branston - Director of Music
Rachel is currently in the process of retiring to the beautiful area surrounding Ottery. She has dedicated her life to teaching music and has worked across many diverse styles of church music throughout her career, including at Leicester Cathedral. Although originally a trained violinist, Rachel has spent the last fifty years conducting choirs and absolutely loves the process of creating beautiful sounds through human voices. She is also an accomplished composer, and many of the anthems sung by our choirs are her own original compositions. When she isn’t making music, Rachel loves nothing more than being at home spending time with her rescue animals.
