Chelmsford Cathedral is delighted to announce the appointment of Emma Gibbins as our next Director of Music. Emma is currently Director of Music at Newport Cathedral.
Interim Dean Paul said: “I am delighted that Emma has accepted the position of Director of Music here at Chelmsford Cathedral. Her wealth of musical and Cathedral experience, and her commitment to children’s choirs within the Cathedral musical tradition, will be a tremendous asset for the Music Department, the Cathedral and the Diocese as a whole. We are looking forward to Emma joining the team and are excited about the opportunities her appointment will help us explore.”
Emma began her musical career as organ scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge, subsequently holding organ scholar posts at St Martin-in-the-Fields and Southwell Minster. She studied for an MMus in Organ Performance at the Royal College of Music, before spending a number of years working in and around London as Director of Music at High Wycombe Parish Church, Associate Organist at St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London, Director of a newly formed Girls’ Choir at Brentwood Cathedral in Essex and accompanist of the South West London Choral Society. Emma relocated to Northern Ireland in 2008 to take up the position of Director of Music at St. George’s Church in Belfast, where she also taught piano and organ, worked as an accompanist in the music department at Queens University, directed the Belfast Phoenix Choir and accompanied the St George’s Singers. She moved to Newport in 2015 as Director of Music at Newport Cathedral, where she is responsible for directing the cathedral’s choirs of adults, boys and girls, having set up the girls’ choir from scratch. She is also in demand as an organ and piano teacher, organ recitalist and accompanist, directs the Adams Chorale and accompanies the Newport “Forget me not chorus” for dementia sufferers.
Speaking about her appointment Emma said: “I am thrilled to have been appointed Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral. It will be a privilege to take a leading role in the development of the musical life of the Cathedral and I am excited for the opportunities that this new role will bring. I am greatly looking forward to moving to Chelmsford, getting to know the Cathedral team and wider community and becoming part of the life of the Cathedral.”
Emma will take up her new post at the Cathedral in September 2024.