The Adult Choirs Choral, Conducting & Organ Scholarships The Song School (Junior & Youth Choirs) The Music Group
The Abbott & Smith Organ The St John Fisher Organ The Andrew Johnson Organ The Bells

Nigel Kerry – Organist & Director of Music

Nigel read Theology at Oxford University and then went on to study organ at the Royal College of Music with Nicholas Danby. Since coming to OLEM in 1998, he has established one of the largest and most innovative Catholic music departments in the UK with its much-valued choral tradition supported by a team of choral and organ scholars funded by a Music Trust, a Song School for children and teenagers, as well as establishing the church as one of the most sought-after concert venues in the area.

He has performed solo recitals in prestigious venues such as Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, St Paul’s Cathedral, King’s, St John’s Colleges, Cambridge and premiered a new commission from the Royal College of Organists for organ and soprano at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.

Nigel has appeared frequently with the London Concert Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and was the first UK organist to play a solo recital at the National Hall of Organ Music in Kyiv, Ukraine. As organist and producer, he has appeared on thirteen commercial recordings to date.

Like his teacher before him, he is recognised as an inspired and articulate tutor of his instrument, having taught now dozens of past and present university organ scholars. He has taught for Eton, Oundle and Royal College of Organists courses as well as at King’s, St John’s Cambridge and Oundle schools.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Nigel is currently writing the authorised biography of the famous 20th century monk/organist, Dom Gregory Murray.

Sam Barrett – Associate Director of Music

Sam is Professor of Early Medieval Music, and Fellow and Director of Study in Music at Pembroke College. He is a specialist in early medieval music, with a particular interest in Latin song and issues in notation, transmission and performance. He also has interests in jazz and related genres of popular music.

His work within medieval music is driven by an interest in song, especially in the way it crosses boundaries between text and music, writing and orality, and memory and performance. These interests have focused on arguably the earliest surviving layer of the Western European lyric tradition, namely the music of the late antique and early medieval Latin lyric, in relation to which he has identified new notated sources and developed analytical techniques for assessing a musical tradition previously presumed to lie beyond detailed commentary. This research has resulted in new editions of the earliest layer of a continuous European tradition of song.

His undergraduate teaching has concentrated on topics in medieval music and jazz, including courses on plainchant and early polyphony, the Sequence, the music of Hildegard of Bingen, American Jazz (especially from the 1940s onwards), Miles Davis and the Blues. At the graduate level, he jointly taught the main Introduction to Musicology course for several years. He has supervised MPhil theses on medieval music and jazz,and is currently supervising PhD theses in the musical writings of al-Kindi, the performance of Minnesang, the performance of Old French verse narratives, and Sequences in the Winchester Troper.

He retains an interest in performance. He collaborated closely with the professional group Sequentia, resulting in contributions to several concert programmes and a CD titled Boethius: Songs of Consolation - Metra from 11th-century Canterbury. He continues to direct, perform, and record with a number of vocal groups based in Cambridge and is a trustee of the vocal ensemble, De Profundis.

Sam Barrett is co-editor of the Journal of Musicology and on the editorial board of Early Music History.

Naomi MacLeod-Jones - Director of The Song School

Naomi began her musical career as a chorister in the Choir of Wells Cathedral. From that point, singing has constantly been an important part of her life, and she continues to do so professionally.

Naomi’s other passion is education. After completing her undergraduate studies at the Royal Holloway University of London, Naomi qualified as a teacher at the University of Bath. She has since taught in four primary schools and led the school music and singing in each. Inspiring young people to find their singing voices is something in which Naomi takes great pleasure; she thrives on introducing children to the world of choral music and observing them discover its musical and emotionally uplifting benefits.

Naomi was previously Director of Primary Musical Outreach for Wells Cathedral, where she planned and led six singing projects involving a total of thirteen different primary schools. Naomi and her family relocated to Cambridgeshire in 2023 and, as well as directing the OLEM Song School, she is also Choral Director for the Diocese of East Anglia and still teaches two days a week in the classroom at Melbourn Primary School.

Naomi enjoys nothing more than bringing her love of choral music to new groups of budding young singers!

Wayne Weaver – Assistant Organist (Graduate Organ Scholar)

Wayne is an alumnus of Wolfson College, Cambridge where he recently read for a PhD in music history. His ongoing research explores the sonic and social cultures of late eighteenth-century Jamaica.

Having previously studied at Edinburgh University, Wayne qualified as a secondary school music teacher in 2013 and was accepted as an Associate of the Royal College of Organists the following year. Since then, he has held various academic and musical performance roles including as a teacher of music at Lourdes Secondary School in Glasgow, Organist and Director of Music at St Ninian’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, Assistant Director of Music at Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire, and Graduate Organ Scholar at Girton College, Cambridge.

Wayne has toured widely performing in churches and concert venues in the UK and abroad and has appeared as a solo keyboardist and singer on several CD recordings. As part of an increasingly busy portfolio career, Wayne lectures on issues relating to jazz at King’s College London and edits rare sources of historical sheet music. 

Honorary Assistant Organists

Christian Rutherford
Brian Watkins
Jeremy Wong

Director of the Music Group

Joe Caprani