Biographies

Adrian Bawtree was appointed as our new Director of Music in September 2024.

Adrian believes in the power of music to enrich lives, and as a professional musician he has seen first-hand the impact music and other creative activities can have on improving wellbeing.

Adrian studied the organ at Christ’s Hospital and progressed to the Royal Academy of Music and then as Organ Scholar at Worcester College, Oxford. He has been church organist at St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, St. Mary’s Church, Portsea and St. Peter’s Church, Hammersmith. He studied orchestral conducting at the Royal College of Music on a post-graduate course, which he completed with distinction. Previous conducting appointments include: Worthing Choral Society, The Weald Choir of Crawley, Harpenden Choral Society, Guy’s King’s and Thomas’ Medical Schools Music Society, Southampton University Chamber Choir, Cantores Dominicae and The Canterbury Singers.

From 2000-2011, he worked at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, initially as Organist and latterly as Director of Music. He followed this as one of the Assistant Organists at Canterbury Cathedral and taught the organ at The King’s School and St. Edmund’s School in Canterbury.

Adrian is also a composer and arranger, having written for the theatre as well as larger cantatas based on: the life of St. Peter (On This Rock), the battle of Trafalgar (Make More Sail) and events from World War 1 (Remembrance & Reconciliation).

Adrian was Director of Music and Organist at Rochester Cathedral from 2022 to July 2026 and he is also a co-Director of the Kent Arts and Wellbeing Partnership.

Robbie Carroll was appointed as our new Assistant Director of Music and Accompanist in January 2025.

Robbie has been the Assistant Director of Music and Sub-Organist at Rochester Cathedral since November 2024. He is currently Acting Director of Music at Rochester Cathedral. Before this, he was Assistant Organist of Norwich Cathedral for two years, and was also the Musical Director of Keswick Hall Choir. He is originally from Galway and his earliest musical training began as organ scholar of Galway Cathedral, under cathedral organist Ray O’Donnell. He then went on to study on the BMus degree at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, graduating in 2017 with a first-class Honours in organ performance. Upon graduation, he also won the Michael McNamara award for ‘excellence in performance’. His organ tutors whilst studying included the late Una Russell, Colm Carey, Siobhán Kilkelly and Simon Harden. During this time, he was also the organ scholar of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral (Dublin), where he accompanied the choir on tours to the USA, Brussels and Rome.

Upon completion of his Bachelor degree, Robbie pursued further studies in Germany. In 2019 he graduated from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Cologne, with a first-class Honours in the Orgel-Solo Master degree. There he studied with Prof. Winfried Bönig, organist of Cologne Cathedral. During his time in Germany, he was also the organ scholar of the parish of St. Peter und Paul, Ratingen, where he studied improvisation with Ansgar Wallenhorst. He was the Assistant Director of Music of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork from 2019-2022, where he accompanied the Cathedral Choir, and assisted in the running of a diocesan church music outreach programme.

Robbie is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and also holds an Associate diploma in piano (ALCM). He has won multiple prizes in the ESB Feis Ceoil and has also competed in the Northern Ireland International Organ competition. He was the first ever organist to compete in the Freemasons’ Young Musician of the Year, and was the 2016 winner of the Brennan Prize, for the ‘most promising musician in the competition’. Robbie is active as a recitalist in the UK, Ireland and Germany. He has participated in masterclasses with Dr John Kitchen, Dame Gillian Weir, Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, Eric Lebrun and Prof. Henry Fairs, among others. He has recorded CDs with the choirs of both St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral and St Fin Barre’s Cathedral.