Welcome to the website of Matthew Cooke - Piano / Organ Accompanist

Born in London in 1970 Matthew was a Music Scholar at Hurstpierpoint College before going up to University College, Durham, where he was Organ Scholar. He studied the piano with Catherine Miller of Wells Cathedral School and the organ with James Lancelot at Durham Cathedral. From Durham he was appointed Director of Music at Cranleigh Prep School during which time a choral cassette was recorded and a performance was given at the Royal Albert Hall. He then moved to Ampleforth College, where his duties included assisting as organist in the Abbey church and acting as a resident tutor, before taking up a post at Bradford Grammar School where he musically directed a highly successful production of ‘Godspell‘. He is currently a part-time teacher at Westbourne House School, which involves individual and group coaching and accompanying, and also teaches at Seaford College, Lanesborough Preparatory School and privately. He has also taught the organ at Lancing College.

Matthew has been Organist of St Gregory’s Minster, North Yorkshire, St Peter and St Paul, West Wittering and St Thomas on the Bourne, Farnham and has just been appointed Organist and Choirmaster of Petworth Parish Church. He has also played the organs of many English Cathedrals as well as at Notre Dame and the Madeleine church in Paris. He is in regular demand as a piano and organ accompanist elsewhere, and has worked with Fernhurst Choral Society, the Shopwyke Singers, the St Richard Singers, Farnham Vox, Guildford Chantry Singers and Rogate Choral Society as well as for solo singers and instrumentalists. He is familiar with a large amount of choral repertoire accompaniment including Orff‘s ‘Carmina Burana’, Borodin’s ‘Polovtsian Dances’, Durufle’s ‘Requiem’, Britten’s ’Rejoice in the Lamb’, Gounod’s ’St Cecilia Mass’, Handel’s ’Dixit Dominus’ and Mozart’s Mass in C minor. He is an extremely fluent and competent sight reader. He has conducted the Cranleigh Choral Society and has organised 'Come and Sing' events in aid of local charities. As a horn player he plays occasionally for the Havant Symphony and Fareham Philharmonic Orchestras.

As a Trinity Guildhall examiner he has travelled widely. He is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and also holds diplomas in piano and horn. In his spare time he enjoys playing the horn, long distance walking, inland waterways and cookery.