William Forrest Appointed as Organ Scholar
The Cathedral is delighted to announce the appointment of William Forrest as Organ Scholar.
William was a chorister and subsequently Head Chorister at Portsmouth Cathedral and whilst studying at Portsmouth Grammar School he sang as a bass in the Cathedral’s Youth Choir, Cantate.
Now completing his BMus degree at Cardiff University with a dissertation on the organ symphonies of Charles-Marie Widor, William has recently performed the big Saint-Saëns “Organ Symphony” with Cardiff University Concert Orchestra and is also a trumpet player and Secretary of Cardiff University Brass Band.
The church and choir of St Martin in Roath, Cardiff, has close links with the University. William is currently their Organ Scholar and has sung with their choir at services in Magdalen College Oxford and St Paul’s Cathedral London as well as playing the organ in broadcasts on BBC Radio Wales.
Away from Cardiff, William served as a volunteer and as Festival Intern at the last two Three Choirs Festival, in Hereford (2018) and Gloucester (2019) respectively.
William Forrest told a Cathedral parishioner “I am delighted to have been offered the Organ Scholarship at Belfast Cathedral. It is clearly a very friendly community and one which I look forward to joining. There’s rarely a dull day at a cathedral – that’s one of the things I’m most excited about, getting back to being in that environment”.
William will arrive in September when he succeeds Jack Wilson who will be commencing postgraduate studies in choral conducting at Cambridge University and taking up his Organ Scholarship at Sidney Sussex College.