Music at Holy Trinity

The gift of music!

Music plays an important part in the life of our church community, and in the life of the wider community of Gibraltar.

We are blessed with excellent resources: our building with wonderful acoustics, our choir and our organ.

Concerts coming up this year...

Thursday 30th November 2023 - 7pm
Christmas concert by local schools
for Save the Children.
Admission £5 on the door.

Monday 11th December 2023 - 7pm
Christmas Concert by local choirs Harmonics and InCantus: A King's Christmas - including Mozart's Coronation Mass and traditional English carols. Tickets from www.buytickets.gi

Tuesday 19th December 2023 - 8pm
Gibraltar Philharmonic Society
Grand Zarzuela Concert
Tickets from www.buytickets.gi

Our choir

The Choir is comprised of individuals with diverse musical experience, but with a common purpose: to use their voices for the glory of God. The choir sings at our 11am service and for services on major festivals.

There is a practice most Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm, and often a short practice on Sunday at 10.30am, but to avoid disappointment it is best to get in touch with us in advance.

Click here to see our music lists for the coming weeks.

If you are interested in joining the choir, do contact us using the email link below.

Visiting Singers - welcome!

If you are a visitor to Gibraltar (or nearby in Spain) and would like to sing with the Holy Trinity choir at the Sunday service (11am) you would be very welcome.

Our organ

The organ was built in 1880 by a London firm of organ builders, Bryceson & Ellis.

In 1952 it was moved from what is now the Lady Chapel to its present location on a musicians gallery above the west entrance.

In the early 1990s the organ was restored by Bower & Company with addition pipes added as part of a tonal enhancement scheme. The most recent restoration was carried out by Cooper & Co in 2017 where the instrument was thoroughly overhauled.

See technical details on the Bowers website.

Our Director of Music

Since 1st May our Director of Music has been Eileen Gay, with responsibility for leading the choir, and playing the organ.

Eileen grew up in Hertfordshire, England, and studied optometry at the University of Manchester. After some years in general practice she opened her own independent practices with her husband Gerry. She later specialised in vision therapy working mostly with children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, and adults with brain injuries. Eileen and Gerry retired and came to live in Gibraltar in April 2022. She still works part-time in Gibraltar in high street optometry (optician's) practice.

She learned classical piano from a young age and has played regularly since then. She has been a member of various choirs since childhood, having experience performing in both large and small groups. She worshipped at the Hartford Hundred Group of five rural churches for the past 20+years, initially singing in the choirs, and later, with the support and encouragement of the principal organist in the Group, playing the organ in four of them and leading the choir as holiday relief.

Eileen joined the Cathedral choir in Gibraltar as soon as she moved here, and this role has since expanded, as required, to choir accompanist and more recently, Director of Music.

Our Assistant Director of Music

Since 1st June our Assistant Director of Music has been Professor John Pymm.

John grew up in the West Midlands. He learned piano from an early age, and trombone in secondary school, going on to read theology and music at the University of Birmingham. He subsequently trained as a schoolteacher at Cardiff University and was also licensed as a lay reader in the Diocese of Lichfield.

Following a period as a music teacher in Coventry, John read for an MEd at the University of Exeter, then an MPhil in music at the University of London. John was awarded a PhD by the University of Southampton for his research into source materials in Minimalist music, a topic on which he has since published.

John has held a number of senior university posts, including Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Wolverhampton, then Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University for the Creative Arts, Surrey, where he was also Founding Professor of Music. John is Emeritus Professor of Music from Sheffield Hallam University.

An active church musician since teenage years, John has always loved choral music. He is a trustee of Ex Cathedra, an Arts Council-funded professional choir, based in Birmingham. John has been visiting Gibraltar on family holidays since 1999 and has been playing the organ for services at Holy Trinity Cathedral since June 2019. When not with us in Gibraltar, John leads music at a Church in Tipton, West Midlands.