Music Department Staff

Andrew Keegan Mackriell
Acting Director of Music and Associate Organist
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One time Assistant Organist of Clifton Roman Catholic Cathedral, Bristol, England Andrew Keegan Mackriell has followed a career in music from an early age.

Having moved to Dublin in 1990 he worked as sectional rehearsal director and chorus master with many of the Dublin Choral Societies. Appointed a Lay Vicar Choral in the National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Saint Patrick, Dublin, Ireland in 1992, he broadcast frequently for the BBC and RTÉ (the Irish national broadcasting company) both as an organist and as a singer, as well as singing with the RTÉ professional choir and performing as a soloist in a number of Irish premières.

From 1995 until 2006, he was the Accompanying Organist for the Choir of St Bartholomew's Church, Dublin working with the choir both in St Bartholomew's and on choir trips to Hereford, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Wells, Lichfield and Southwark Cathedrals in England, Armagh, Belfast and Downpatrick Cathedrals in Northern Ireland and the churches of La Madeleine, Saint-Sulpice and St George’s in Paris, France and Chartres Cathedral also in France. He is featured on two CDs of the Choir recorded in 1996 and 2006.

From September 1999 until April 2003, he was Cathedral Organist and Director of Music at St Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare, Ireland and in 2001 he was also Acting Assistant Organist at the National Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Dublin, Ireland.

2001 saw him establish Saint Patrick's Cathedral Chamber Choir, a mixed-voice adult choir which specialised in twentieth and twenty-first century European and American choral repertoire, both sacred and secular. The choir received critical acclaim for its performances of Irish premières of these modern works.

From 1990 Andrew was also a member of the tutorial staff of the Roman Catholic Irish Church Music Association Summer School held annually at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth – Ireland’s Pontifical University and Seminary just outside Dublin [from where he holds a post-graduate Diploma in Sacred Liturgy]. In the summer of 2006 he was invited to be Guest Director of the Summer Course, following in the footsteps of well-known liturgical musicians such as Marty Haugen, Fr Michael Joncas, David Haas and Tom Kendzia.

For many years Andrew combined his extensive choral and organ work in Dublin with teaching posts at St Kilian's German School and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

Andrew’s work in Canada dates from the Summer of 1994 when he began an ongoing, thirteen year collaboration with St James' Cathedral, Toronto, where he acted as Assistant Organist and Choral Director during July and August each year. He took part in many of the recital series in and around Toronto, including at St James’, and he first performed in the noon hour organ recital series at St Paul’s Cathedral, London in 2000. He has continued with a monthly recital in that series since his move to London in May 2007 to take up the position of Associate Organist at St Paul’s and has been heard in recital both in Toronto and in venues around south western Ontario and in Quebec since that time.

Andrew’s permanent move to London in 2007 brought him back to the city he knew well from family visits as a child. In March 2009 he was appointed Acting Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, where, in addition to his regular liturgical duties, he also directs the Schola Sancti Pauli – the Cathedral’s mixed-voice concert chamber choir – and heads up the Cathedral Arts Programme along with volunteer members of the Cathedral community.