My working life began in my native England in the autumn of 1968 teaching Music full-time at three schools in succession. Concurrently with my third teaching post I taught part-time courses in Music in the Institute of Extension Studies in the University of Liverpool. Concurrently with all my teaching appointments, I held part-time posts as organist and choirmaster in several churches.
In the spring of 1984 my family and I moved to Norway so that I could take up a full-time post as Kantor (church musician) and Community musician in the parish of Haltdalen in the Lutheran Church of Norway (the state church). The parish is in mid-Norway; it is rural, is an amalgamation of four small parishes (all of which are served by just one Minister and one Kantor), and covers a wide geographical area.
For more information about Haltdalen combined parish, visit:
lokalhistoriewiki.no/index.php/Haltdalen_prestegjeld
In early 1998 my family and I moved to southern Norway where I had obtained a full-time post as Kantor in the parish of Åssiden. Åssiden is a large and demographically varied suburb of Drammen, a town located about 40 km SW of Oslo. The musical life of the parish is varied and ambitious, and there is only one church for the Kantor to serve. I remained in that post for just over eighteen years until I retired at the end of April 2016.
For more information about Åssiden and Åssiden parish, visit:
http://drammen.kirken.no/assiden/
The above two sites are in Norwegian. You can read them in other languages if your browser has a translation facility, but the degree of idiomatic accuracy may vary.
My close involvement with the Christian church from an early age has made me very conscious of its Jewish heritage. My fascination with questions surrounding the possibility that Jewish musical traditions could also have been part of that heritage in the earliest Christian decades, has led to my deep interest in the music of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. This interest I have pursued at a scholarly level alongside my paid employment.
For more information, visit the links ‘Published work’ and ‘More’ > ‘Work as an independent scholar’ in the navigation panel on the bar above.