Christopher Eastwood
Director of Music
Christopher Eastwood is currently Director of Music at St Benedict’s School, Ealing, and Director of Music at Ealing Abbey.
Christopher began his musical studies as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, under the direction of James O’Donnell, recording numerous discs on the Hyperion label. A degree in Music at Lincoln College, Oxford, furthered Christopher’s studies and, while at Oxford, he was Senior Organ Scholar with responsibility for the choir and the music in the college chapel. During this period he also directed the choir in a recording of music by the Wesley family, which was released to favourable reviews.
Following his graduation from Oxford, Christopher was appointed as organ scholar at Portsmouth Cathedral and subsequently as organ scholar at Westminster Cathedral. He has toured extensively in the United Kingdom and in Europe with various ensembles, has performed on the Remembrance Day Songs of Praise programme as well as undertaking radio broadcasts for Radio 3 and 4. In 2005 Christopher accompanied Westminster Cathedral Choir for the live television broadcast on the occasion of the Requiem Mass for Pope John Paul II. As an organist he has given recitals at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Magdalen College, Oxford, and many other venues. Christopher remains active as a singer, with previous highlights including recording the soundtrack to Blue Planet with Magdalen College Choir, Oxford, and now as a singer with Canticum, a London-based choir, performing at the Barbican and other prestigious London venues.
Christopher has achieved great success with Ealing Abbey Choir and with the choirs of St Benedict’s School. The Abbey Choir are recognised as one of the foremost Catholic choirs in England and have toured to Rome, Strasbourg, USA (East & West coast), Poland, Vienna & Budapest. Their recent releases, Personent Hodie & Membra Jesu nostri, on the Herald label have been highly acclaimed. St Benedict’s Choir sing at numerous school events and have toured to Holland and Belgium, Italy and Paris. Recent performances have included Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s St John Passion, and Orff’s Carmina Burana at St John Smith’s Square.
Richard Leach
Organist
Richard Leach has been the Organist of Ealing Abbey Choir since 2012, having previously been Assistant Director of Music at Worksop College after holding organ scholarships at Pembroke College, Oxford and Canterbury Cathedral.
He also teaches the piano and organ at St Benedict’s School and is the regular accompanist for Streatham Choral Society and The Music Makers’ Choir of Harpenden. He has given organ recitals at Canterbury Cathedral, Nottingham Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, All Saints Marlow, and at The Queen’s and Magdalen Colleges in Oxford. Richard is also a freelance piano accompanist and conductor and has played at the Wigmore Hall, for the Concordia Foundation, and as a staff accompanist at the Royal Academy of Music.
He has performed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune as well as on The Choir with Blossom Street. Conducting engagements include Messiah (The Merry Opera Company), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Pop-Up Opera), and Tosca (Grimeborn); he was assistant conductor for the Woodhouse Festival 2014 and for Royal Academy Opera’s productions of Le nozze di Figaro and L’incoronazione di Poppea and was chorus master for Ariodante and May Night. He has worked as a répétiteur for The English Concert, The Grange Festival, the Philharmonia Chorus and The Monteverdi Choir, and as an operatic coach at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Richard studied at Oxford, Cambridge, and the Royal Academy of Music.