DIRECTOR OF MUSIC
Frikki Walker has been Director of Music at St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow since 1996, and under his leadership the choir has developed into a choir of professional standing, with an international reputation for excellence through its regular broadcasts on Radio and TV, live-streams and recordings. The choir now also enjoys the inclusion of a Children’s Choir.
Frikki has recorded four CDs with the choir, and the choir have now featured on over 50 Radio and TV programmes including, Daily Service and Morning Worship on BBC Radio 4, Sunday Half-hour on Radio 2, and a wide variety of special programmes on BBC Radios 2, 4, Scotland and the World Service. They have also appeared many times on BBC Television’s “Songs of Praise”. In November 2025 they will feature on Radio 3 Choral Evensong for the first time since the 1960s.
In addition to his duties at St Mary’s, Frikki currently conducts the Royal School of Church Music Scottish Voices, which he co-founded, is on the staff of the RSNO Youth Chorus, where he conducts their Changed Voices section, and has just retired from the staff at the High School of Glasgow, where he conducted their multi-award-winning Chamber Choir. In 2016 he founded Glasgow Cambiata bringing together the changed voices choirs of several local schools, and this choir has performed with the RSNO to great acclaim.
Frikki has worked with most of Scotland’s prestigious choirs, including all the choirs in the RSNO family, the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, and choirs in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, for whom he has also acted as a visiting examiner.
A keen Choral animateur, he has run choral workshops for Festivals and choirs throughout Scotland and is in increasing demand as an adjudicator at Music Festivals.
An accomplished organist, Frikki has given recitals in parish churches, concert halls and Cathedrals all over Britain and beyond, including such venues as the Caird Hall in Dundee, St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Chester Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. He has also played in Salzburg, Holland, and in major churches in his home country, Iceland.
As a composer, he has written a huge range of choral music and choral arrangements, some of which are published, and several of which have been broadcast on Radio and TV, and sung and played in schools, churches and cathedrals all over the world. His “Camerata Carols” have twice featured in the RSNO Christmas Concerts.
Frikki is married with three children, and in his spare time, likes nothing better than spending time with them and his friends. When not involved in musical activities, he enjoys reading, (historical and biographical, and crime fiction,) driving, classic cars, visiting places of historic interest, word games and puzzles, and watching films. Frikki is also an avid fan of Science Fiction, especially Star Trek and Dr Who, is a life-long Lego enthusiast, and has an extensive collection of bookmarks.
CATHEDRAL ORGANIST
Dr John Gormley has been the Cathedral Organist since November 2025. He is a graduate of the University of Glasgow, where he gained an MA (Music), MMus (Composition) and an MSc (Information Technology). Whilst a student at Glasgow, he was the Lanfine Organ Scholar. In 2014 he gained his PhD in Composition from the University of St Andrews.
Since 2001, John has been a lecturer in music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. From 2012 to 2019 he held the post of Joint Head of BEd (Music) and from 2019 to 2023 the post of Joint Head of BEd & PGDE (Music). In these roles, John had responsibility for music studies and all aspects of quality assurance for the Programmes, including quinquennial Programme Review and Reaccreditation with the General Teaching Council for Scotland. Since 2023, he has taken a step back from Programme management to devote more time to lecturing, composing and performing.
As a composer, John has had works performed by, amongst others: Scottish Voices; Cappella Nova; the Dunedin Consort; Psappha; The New Music Players; and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera.
An experienced organist and choral director, John has directed a number of choirs in Glasgow and Edinburgh. He currently directs the student teachers’ choir of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and regularly. From 1998 to 2022, he was Director of Music at Sherbrooke Mosspark Parish Church in Glasgow.