{{Short description|English organist, choirmaster and conductor (1948–2025)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use British English|date=February 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Simon Lindley | image = Simon Lindley (1a).jpg | alt = Black and white publicity headshot of a clean-shaven, bespectacled, smiling man with male pattern baldness. | caption = Lindley in the 1990s | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1948|10|10}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2025|02|25|1948|10|10}} | death_place = | occupation = {{ubl| Organist | Choirmaster | Conductor | Composer | Academic teacher }} | organizations = {{ubl| Leeds Minster | Leeds Polytechnic | Royal College of Organists }} }}
'''Simon Lindley''' (10 October 1948 – 25 February 2025) was an English organist, choirmaster, conductor and composer. He was Organist and Master of the Music at Leeds Minster from 1975 until his retirement in 2016, and Leeds City Organist from 1976 to 2017. He also played organ recitals and recorded with orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic. He was Senior Lecturer in Music at Leeds Polytechnic and president of the Royal College of Organists, and served as master of music for several choirs and as editor of church music.
== Life and career == Lindley was born in London on 10 October 1948.<ref>{{cite web |title=Simon Lindley (composer) |url=https://www.prestomusic.com/sheet-music/composers/35135--lindley?srsltid=AfmBOoomFZPYc8qEyF1eu6TOWSfCUottUZbF_OCKVbiTXuePKsUlapMt |website=Presto Music |access-date=28 February 2025 }}</ref> His father Geoffrey Lindley was vicar at St Margaret's Church, Oxford, from 1956 until 1972,<ref>[https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/documents/TW9_final_web_version.pdf Lindley, Geoffrey (1940)] ''TW Magazine'' No. 9 (Spring 2012), p. 57]</ref><ref name="minster-obit" /> and his mother Jeanne, the daughter of Belgian poet and art historian Emile Cammaerts, was a writer and teacher and between 1943 and 1945 a log reader at Bletchley Park.<ref>'[https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8427728.pensioner-honoured-code-breaking-work/ Pensioner honoured for code-breaking work]', ''Oxford Mail'', 2 October 2010</ref> After early education at Magdalen College School, Oxford, and graduation from the Royal College of Music in London, Lindley began an organ career in 1969, playing at various London churches and recording organ music.<ref name="LinBio">[https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Lindley-Simon.htm 'Simon Lindley (Choral Conductor)'], biography at Bach Cantatas.com</ref>
thumb|Interior of Leeds Minster Lindley served as an organ tutor at the Royal School of Church Music and later as assistant master of music at St Albans Cathedral to Peter Hurford and director of music at St Albans School.<ref>John Rutter's 1974 carol ''Jesus Child'' bears a dedication "for Simon Lindley and the choir of St Albans School". J. Rutter (eds.), "Carols for Choirs I"</ref> In 1975 he became organist and master of the music at Leeds Minster (then called Leeds Parish Church), and directed the Choir of Leeds Parish Church until his retirement in 2016.<ref name="minster-obit" /> He held daily Evensongs with the choir, some of them broadcast by the BBC and Yorkshire Television. He conducted a wide repertoire, commissioning new works from Francis Jackson and Philip Moore, among others, and performing neglected pieces such as William Lloyd Webber’s cantata ''{{ill|The Saviour (cantata)|de|The Saviour (Kantate)|lt=The Saviour}}''. As organist, he played Elgar's Organ Sonata at the Proms and tackled Julius Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm. Many of his organ assistants went on to cathedral posts.<ref name="minster-obit" />
Lindley was city organist of Leeds from 1976 to 2017.<ref name=award>''[https://news.leeds.gov.uk/news/leeds-award-presented-to-duo-for-exceptional-contributions-in-music-and-arts-education Leeds Award Presented]'', Leeds.gov.uk, 26 September 2016</ref> From 1977 to 2020, he served as music director of Saint Peter's Singers of Leeds, a mixed adult chamber choir that he founded with his friend Harry Fearnley. The group performed major works such as Bach's Passions and Mass in B minor, and Handel's ''Messiah'' and other oratorios in the church. He also programmed works such as Jackson's ''A Time of Fire''.<ref name="minster-obit" />
He was senior lecturer in music at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Beckett University) from 1976 to 1987 and held the post of senior assistant music officer for Leeds City Council from 1987 to 2011. During the 1970s and 80s he was chorus master to Halifax Choral Society and Leeds Philharmonic Society. After 1991 he served as secretary of the Church Music Society.<ref name="LinBio"/> From 2009 and 2010 respectively, Lindley held posts as conductor of Sheffield Bach Society and Doncaster Choral Society until stepping down in 2023. From 1997 until 2022 he served as music director of Overgate Hospice Choir, Halifax.
Lindley died on 25 February 2025, at the age of 76.<ref name="minster-obit">{{cite web |title=Dr Simon Lindley 1948–2025 |url=https://leedsminster.org/dr-simon-lindley-1948-2025/ |website=Leeds Minster |access-date=28 February 2025 |date=26 February 2025}}</ref><ref>[https://slippedisc.com/2025/02/eminent-english-organist-76/ 'Eminent English Organist, 76'] Slipped Disc, 25 February 2025</ref>
== Awards and honorary posts == Lindley was president of the Royal College of Organists from 2000 to 2003, having first served on its council in 1977; he was then its vice-president until his death.<ref name="rco">{{cite web |title=Dr Simon Lindley DUniv, FRCO(CHM) (1948–2025) |url=https://www.rco.org.uk/news_displaystory.php?newsid=401 |website=www.rco.org.uk |publisher=Royal College of Organists |access-date=3 March 2025}}</ref> He was president of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 2003 to 2005.<ref name="minster-obit" /> He was Secretary of the Church Music Society from 2001 to 2024, working for the research and publication of critical editions of Renaissance and Restoration music.<ref name="minster-obit" /> He served on the editorial panel for New English Praise (2006), a supplement to ''The New English Hymnal'', and he worked extensively on compilation of the supplement.<ref name="LinBio"/> He was chairman of the Ecclesiastical Music Trust from 2004 and was Chairman of the Yorkshire College of Music and Drama from 2006 to 2013. He was in office as Grand Organist to the United Grand Lodge of England from 2010 to 2012 and from 2010 in the Masonic Province of Yorkshire West Riding as Provincial Grand Organist.<ref name="LinBio"/> Lindley received an honorary doctorate from Leeds Polytechnic in 2001,<ref>{{ cite web |title=Honorary Graduate Directory |url= https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/alumninew/honorary-graduate-directory.pdf |publisher=Leeds Beckett University |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref> and a similar distinction from the University of Huddersfield in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |title=Honorary graduates |url=https://www.hud.ac.uk/about/honorary-graduates/ |publisher=University of Huddersfield |access-date=28 February 2025 }}</ref> He was the recipient of the "Spirit of Leeds" award from Leeds Civic Trust presented in 2006 and a Leeds Award from Leeds City Council in 2016.<ref name=award/>
== Composition and recording == Lindley composed several anthems and organ works, edited choral music<ref>''Anthems for Unison & Two Part Singing, Volume 2'', Royal School of Church Music, 1979</ref> and arranged carols.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220409204857/http://simonlindley.org.uk/publications.html Publications], Simon Lindley website</ref> He recorded as organ soloist with orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic and Northern Sinfonia (the Handel Organ Concertos), with Huddersfield Choral Society, and as accompanist to such musicians as violinists David Greed and Marat Bisengaliev and cornett virtuoso Phillip McCann.<ref>[https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Simon_Lindley/447 Simon Lindley recordings] Naxos</ref> His disc of English organ music contains rarely-heard works by Basil Harwood, Percy Whitlock and Norman Cocker.<ref>''[https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/apr00/organlindley.htm English Organ Music from Leeds Town Hall]'', Foxglove Recordings FOX022CD (2000)</ref><!-- From 2006 until 2019 he gave a monthly Organ Concert each month in Fulneck Moravian Church.-->
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official website|https://web.archive.org/web/20221006181644/http://www.simonlindley.org.uk/}} (archived 6 October 2022) * {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q3780}} * {{Discogs artist|Simon Lindley}} * {{IMDb name|1145729}} * [https://sheffieldbachchoir.com/dr-simon-lindley/ Simon Lindley] at the Sheffield Bach Society * [https://www.hud.ac.uk/about/honorary-graduates/ Lindley receiving honorary degree at University of Huddersfield, 2012]—video of presentation
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindley, Simon}} Category:1948 births Category:2025 deaths Category:21st-century English male musicians Category:21st-century English organists Category:Alumni of Leeds Beckett University Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:English choral conductors Category:English classical organists Category:English contemporary classical composers Category:English male classical organists Category:English people of Belgian descent Category:English people of German descent Category:Musicians from Leeds Category:Musicians from Sheffield Category:Musicians from the London Borough of Bexley