Director of Music

Michael Ferguson

Dr Michael Ferguson is a music director, lecturer and researcher. As Director of Music at St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral he is responsible for overseeing the liturgical music-making across the Cathedral parish. He directs the Schola Cantorum and the Cathedral Choir.

Raised in Portstewart, Northern Ireland, Michael studied music at the universities of Edinburgh and Bristol, and completed a PhD in Music at the University of Edinburgh, where he examined music-making in the modern-day Scottish Catholic Church. Academic scholarships include an Arts and Humanities Research Council Professional Preparation Masters Scholarship for his postgraduate degree at Bristol University, and a three-year Carnegie-Caledonian PhD Scholarship for his doctoral studies.

As a researcher, Michael writes regularly on the subject of Catholic music, with recent work published in the Yale Journal of Music and Religion, and in the book Annunciations: Sacred Music for the Twenty-First Century (ed. Corbett, OBP 2019). Michael also lectures and tutors in Music at the University of St Andrews. He is Coordinator of Academic Music in the University’s Music Centre, course leader of the undergraduate ‘Music Leadership’ module, and joint programme director of the postgraduate Masters in Sacred Music degree, which launched in 2020 and is a collaboration between the University of St Andrews Music Centre and the School of Divinity’s Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts.

Michael’s choral music has been performed in the UK, Ireland, and the USA, and his music for film has appeared on BBC TV, Channel 4, and at film festivals worldwide. As a music director, he has worked with a range of different choirs and ensembles, including Troon Chorus, Pentland Singers, Dalkeith Singers and St Andrews Chorus.

Cathedral Organist

Tom Wilkinson

Dr Tom Wilkinson studied at St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh, and was subsequently Organ Scholar of Truro Cathedral, Cornwall. In 2004 he took up the Organ Scholarship at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and graduated with first-class honours in Music in 2007. From 2008-9 he held the position of Assistant Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral. Since 2009, he has been University Organist at the University of St Andrews, and from that year until 2018 he was the director of the university’s flagship choir, St Salvator’s Chapel Choir. Tom holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists, a Master’s degree in Early Keyboard Performance (with distinction) from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD on the nineteenth-century Bach revival from the University of Glasgow.

His organ playing has been highly praised by critics: ‘Tom’s performance ... was measured, perfectly-judged, a model of clarity, well-registered and authoritative’ (Console); ‘[o]ne cannot but admire the textural clarity and musical integrity of Wilkinson’s playing’ (Music Web International). Though a specialist in baroque repertoire, he is also known as a fine exponent of contemporary music, having premiered music by Sir James MacMillan and performed as concerto soloist with Scotland’s Red Note Ensemble. In 2015 Tom founded the Kellie Consort, which exists to provide pre-professional training and performance opportunities for young baroque music specialists with a connection to Scotland. For more information, please visit www.tomwilkinson.org.uk.

Music Group Leader

David Carnegie

David Carnegie is an accomplished drummer, composer/arranger and educator who has worked extensively in jazz and popular music idioms around the Caribbean, the U.S. and the U.K.. A lifelong Catholic, David has also worked with diocesan, cathedral and parish choirs in his native Barbados, in Newcastle upon Tyne and in Scotland where he currently resides. He moved to Edinburgh in late 2013 where he joined the 7:30pm choir at St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral and has been leading the choir since 2015 as well as providing piano accompaniment. Professionally David has performed with artists such as Sir Cliff Richard, Andy Narell, Marcus Belgrave and Jason Yarde; performed for television and radio including Radio 4’s Loose Ends; lead and recorded with numerous ensembles; taught ensembles, drumming, harmony and improvisation at The Sage Gateshead and holds a BMus (First Class Honours) in Jazz Popular and Commercial Music from Sunderland University.