Music Director

George Parsons took over as the Musical Director of Escafeld Chorale in September 2022. George was a boy chorister at King's College, Cambridge, where he also began organ lessons. As a sixth-former he was Junior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral and, after further study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, he read music at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he was also an organ scholar. Since graduating in 2003, George has worked in music ministry for churches in London and Sheffield, and in 2016 completed a PhD in Musicology, analysing the overlap between music and Christian theology in the orchestral Triduum triptych by Sir James MacMillan. In addition to working as a freelance teacher, accompanist, and recitalist (work that has taken him around Europe, to Africa and to the USA), George works as the Worship Pastor at St Catherine's Church in Wakefield.

Recent work as an academic and writer has seen George contribute the programme notes for David Goode's 2020 recording of the complete Bach organ works for Signum Classics, and act as the co-editor of James MacMillan Studies for Cambridge University Press (2020). As well as directing Escafeld Chorale, George is the accompanist for the Rose Choir and the Co-Operative Choral Society, both based in Chesterfield. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.