One of Scotland’s oldest churches, Perth’s St John’s Kirk, has a new director of music and organist.
The kirk session announced this week that Howard Duthie will lead a team of musicians to serve the newly refurbished kirk and its community.
Mr Duthie received his musical education at the Royal College of Music, the Royal School of Church Music and as organ scholar at Christ’s College Cambridge.
He recently retired from full-time school teaching after nine years as head of music at Morrison’s Academy, having previously been director of music at George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh for nearly 20 years. He has been musical director of the Perth-based choir Chansons since 2002.
”We are delighted to have appointed someone of the calibre of Howard,” said the Reverend Jim Wallace. ”We have ambitious plans for the development of music at St John’s after our major renovation project and Howard’s talent and experience are exactly what we require to implement those plans.”
Mr Duthie, who officially started last Saturday, said: ”It is exciting to be joining the St John’s team at this important time. St John’s Kirk is a great asset to Perth and its people, and we will work hard to ensure that this beautiful building resounds to the strains of fittingly beautiful music in the future.”
Working alongside Mr Duthie will be Marjory Watson as choir director, Andrew Forbes as organ scholar and Henry Neil as honorary assistant organist.