On 25 February 2025, we lost one of the foremost church musicians of a generation, Dr Simon Lindley. 

Born in London in 1948, to an Anglican clergyman and a mother of Belgian heritage, Lindley was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, and the Royal College of Music. He held organist's positions at various London churches before becoming the first full-time assistant to Peter Hurford at St Albans Cathedral in 1970, where he was also director of music at St Albans School. In 1975, he performed Elgar’s Organ Sonata at the BBC Proms, in a concert alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Adrian Boult. 

Without doubt, Lindley will be best remembered for his long and accomplished tenure as organist and master of music at Leeds Parish Church (now Leeds Minster) from 1975 to 2016, and as Leeds City Organist from 1976 to 2017. He inherited an established tradition at the Parish Church, dating back to S S Wesley and Bairstow, and it is a tribute to Lindley's indefatigable character that the tradition of daily Evensongs continued there into the 21st century, the choir appearing regularly on broadcasts. Regular commissions were also a feature of his tenure including new works by Herbert Sumsion, Philip Moore, Francis Jackson and Bryan Kelly. Generations of choristers, organ scholars and assistants, many of whom now hold major church, cathedral and other professional positions, were nurtured and learnt their trade from Lindley through his skill and encyclopaedic knowledge. 

One cannot go far within the musical circles of Yorkshire without mention of Lindley’s name. In an interview for BBC Radio, he once described himself as a ‘general practitioner in music’, manifest by the number of appointments he held over many years: senior lecturer in music at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Beckett University); director of Sheffield Bach Choir, Doncaster Choral Society, St Peter’s Singers and Overgate Hospice Choir; chorus master of Halifax Choral Society and Leeds Philharmonic Society. 

President of the Royal College of Organists between 2000 and 2003 and of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 2003 to 2005, Lindley was also secretary of the Church Music Society and a compiler of New English Praise, a supplement to the New English Hymnal. His lyrical and well-loved setting of the  Ave Maria is a staple of almost every church choir and has been sung all over the world. Simon was a freemason for many years, combining his passion for masonry and music as grand organist to the Grand United Lodge of England between 2010 and 2012.  

On a personal note, I shall be forever grateful to him for his overwhelming generosity to me when I was growing up as a young organist in West Yorkshire, and latterly as his organ scholar at Leeds Parish Church. He spent many hours teaching, mentoring and guiding me gratuitously. There are many anecdotes about him and his legendary character, always told with great affection by those who knew him. He will be missed by many, as shown by the large number of social media posts and other tributes which have been written in recent days. Requiescat in pace.