Richard Smith was appointed conductor of the Froxfield Choir in 2005. He started training choirs in earnest as an undergraduate at the University of Birmingham where he directed the University Chamber Choir. In 1995 he won an M.J. West Memorial Scholarship to study in Scandinavia and in 1998 he was awarded the Royal College of Organists' John Brook Prize for Choir Directing. He took his postgraduate studies on the harpsichord with Lars Ulrik Mortensen in Munich, and later on the organ with Harald Vogel at the North German Organ Academy. He is currently studying orchestral conducting in a postgraduate class with Denise Ham (Royal Academy of Music).
From 2001 to 2005 he was the organist at St Mary's Church in Stoke D'Abernon, home of the famous Frobenius instrument, where he gave over forty concerts and established the professional choir. He is currently the Director of Music at two of Reading's principal Anglo-Catholic churches, The Church of the Most Holy Trinity and St.Mark's. He has given solo organ recitals on many of Britain's finest instruments, including those at Westminster Abbey, Truro Cathedral and the Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh, and his recent return to recital-giving has included performances at Queen's College, Oxford and Beverley Minster. He conducts a number of amateur and professional ensembles in the South East of England and is the Director of The Liturgical Music Courses, a series of annual week-long courses for adults based in English cathedrals. Recent conducting engagements have included Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius and Mozart's Requiem.
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