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How did you come to be involved in church music?


Initially by growing up singing hymns in church. The church my family went to didn't have a regu- lar choir, but we formed one for the carol service every Christmas, which my Dad conducted, so I have memories of being the choirboy singing the first verse of Once in Royal. Aged about 14, I started having organ lessons, and it wasn't long before I was being asked to play for ser- vices (one church on Sunday mornings and a different one on Sunday evenings). Since then, I've always felt a calling to making music to accompany worship. When I was student at Oxford I sang in the Queen's Chapel Choir, which was my introduc- tion to choral evensong, and the more formal side of the Anglican choral tradition, which I immediately loved. However, I also played and sang at St. Aldate's Church, which had a rather different musical tradition and identity, which at that time was very varied, and had quite a strong focus on songs composed within that church itself.


What do you consider to be the biggest chal- lenge at the moment for parish church musi- cians?


Finding ways of expressing our faith through mu- sic which communicates effectively to people both within and outside the church. There are several obstacles to this, including the fact that the society we live in is hugely pluralistic in its musical cultures, but some individuals or groups (both within and outside the church) can tend to ghetto-ise themselves according to the music they are prepared to tolerate. I value the traditions of music which have developed within the church over the past 1,500 or so years enormously, but I also think these traditions need continually to be renewing themselves. So on the one hand, the


November 2017


Dr Peter Foster - St Helen’s Director of Music an interview with Alexandra Green


challenge is to keep existing singers and congre- gations with us through any attempts to innovate, so that what they value is not lost, but on the oth- er, church music has to be able to say something to people (including young people) who have not grown up in the church. This also needs to hap- pen in a context where everyone is more and more busy, so singers who are willing to turn up faithfully every Sun- day to sing are like gold to choir directors like me.


Who has had the greatest influence on you as a musician?


I can't easily think of one person. I had a number of very good teachers, both of aca- demic music at school and university, as well as some of my instru- mental teachers. I've also learnt a lot from musicians I've played and sung with over the years.


Who are your favour- ite composers and why?


Dr Peter Foster I have many, but if


asked to nominate a favourite I couldn't go past J. S. Bach, because he is most of what I aspire (badly in comparison) to be: a teacher, whose weekday job was to teach boys Music (and Latin, but apparently he tended to shirk that); a church musician, whose working life revolved around the weekly routines of Sunday services and feast days; a performer, who was the greatest organist of his day, but was evidently highly competent on several other instruments as well; and a compos- er, who produced a staggering amount of music which is dazzling both in its technical mastery, and in its expressive profundity, most of which was composed as part of this weekly routine of producing music for services.


When not at the organ bench at St Helen's, where might we see you making music?


My weekday job is as Director of Music at Our


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