Michael Butterfield
Director of Music
Michael is an Australian-British choral director, organist, and teacher based in London. His musical journey began as a chorister at St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney where he eventually held the position of Assistant Director of Music.
In 2017 he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Professor David Titterington. During this time, he held organ scholarships at Westminster Cathedral, Royal Hospital Chelsea and Kings College London which involved numerous concert performances, broadcasts, and a tour to the USA.
Upon graduating with an MA from the Royal Academy, Michael spent a year as Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral working regularly with the boy and girl choristers and playing the famous Father Willis cathedral organ for daily services. Between 2020 and 2025 he was the Organist and Academic Music Teacher at Marlborough College, taught the Music Technology A-Level course, and directed the music for Godspell (2022), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2023), and A Brief Encounter (2024). He recently performed Widor Symphony V and the Poulenc Organ Concerto with the London Mozart Players.
In September 2026, he took up the post of Director of Music at Ealing Abbey.
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.