18/06/2026
Southport Bach Choir’s performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle on 27 June will feature two pianos and organ accompaniment. Sitting at the keyboards will be James Lonsdale on the organ, Robin Stopford on piano, and directing us from a second piano, our MD Marc Murray.
Robin studied piano with Martin Roscoe and Peter Donohoe, organ with Keith Jarvis and Graham Cummings and composition with Arthur Butterworth and Peter Clare. He now devotes his time to private tuition, and is Musical Director for a number of choirs, theatres and groups in the North West.
James studied music at the University of Oxford, where he was an organ scholar at St Peter’s College. He was organist at Clitheroe Parish Church for over 10 years and is a Fellow of Royal College of Organists. He is an experienced accompanist and has worked with many singers, instrumentalists and choirs over the last 30 years, as well as working as a lawyer.
Marc was born and educated in South Africa and studied at the University of Cape Town’s College of Music. He moved to the UK in 2010, becoming director of music at St Botolph’s church in Boston, Lincolnshire. He has worked with many choirs, opera groups and orchestras, and has been our music director since 2016. Marc holds both the Fellowship and Choral Directing Diploma of the Royal College of Organists. He has played in concerts throughout South Africa, as well as the USA, Germany, Sweden and the UK, where he has given solo recitals in Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s, Southwark, Blackburn, Chester, Newcastle and Bradford cathedrals.
