David Hill: What were your first encounters with music?

Simon Johnson: I grew up in a clergy family, so hymns were always there. I particularly remember Lift High the Cross as a youngster, and used to bellow each refrain, much to the amusement of everyone.

It must have sounded awful, but luckily didn’t prevent me from joining the church choir alongside my brother, Tim (now precentor and director of music at Eton College). The choir did a visiting evensong at Peterborough Cathedral and that was it for me. I came home to tell my parents that that was what I wanted to do every day, and promptly joined the cathedral choir.

A huge memory from my chorister time was when my friend got a medal and I didn’t. I was furious, and led everything the choir did from that moment on: a 12-year-old’s musical coup d’état! Occasionally, I go and sit in the same stall where I made that momentous decision. You know the fabulous Peterborough organ from your recent recording there, David; I completely fell for it as a boy. Unfortunately, I didn’t play the piano to any great level as a chorister (I’d actually given it up previously), so after Peterborough I came home so that I could put the practice hours in – my alarm went off at 5am every day. Luckily, my school music teacher was superb, and he got me into all kinds of music: jazz, pop, Stravinsky and Ravel all stand out. I played cello in the county youth orchestra at that time, and there was also a Father Willis organ in my father’s church that I had access to morning, noon and night.

DH: What can you tell me about your main mentors and teachers?

SJ: After learning the basics with Malcolm Tyler, I went on to study the organ with David Sanger, Anne Page and Marie-Claire Alain, who once said to me: ‘Seemon, you play ze orgue like you ’ave never been in luurve’!

In my gap year I was organ scholar at Rochester Cathedral, turning pages every day for Roger Sayer. What an organist… I was organ scholar at Norwich for my degree years, but, as fate had it, ended up being the acting assistant for a lot of that time – real ‘sink or swim’ stuff. Neil Taylor was a decisive influence from then, and his passion for choir-training really rubbed off on me.

After Norwich I went to St Paul’s for a year with the great John Scott at the peak of his powers. Andrew Lucas was also there as number two, and he later guided me through my time at St Albans. And, of course, working for Andrew Carwood, with all his singing know-how, was really important because I was always into the choir side of things.

DH: Tell us about your time at St Albans and St Paul’s. How did they differ as positions?

SJ: They are very different places, but both have always valued their music, so maybe that’s why there’s been plenty of personnel traffic both ways. At St Albans there is no choir school, so the parish community and overall sense of aspiration were fundamental to how the choirs ran. The organ was very individual, and really kept me on my toes. The instrument was also how I met my wife, Laura. She worked on it during the restoration, and I later won the Wedding Proposal Olympics by murmuring my suggestion around the whispering gallery of an empty St Paul’s Cathedral. I also ran the girls’ choir at St Albans and remain deeply proud of what they achieved together. They were my passport to St Paul’s, where everything is on an altogether bigger scale, with more services, a choir school and a back row of seasoned London pros.

DH: What attracted you about the job of master of music at Westminster Cathedral?

SJ: Well, first-up, I have always thought that the choir is the most important cathedral choir in the world. You will know better than anyone, David, that the Drome choir is utterly unique in what it does and in the way it goes about doing it. So when it looked like they might be in a bit of trouble a few years ago I knew that I had to go there and give it my best shot. I’d also done 13 years at St Paul’s so it was time for a new challenge. I’m a much better musician for having taken the plunge.

DH: What does the job at Westminster require which makes it unique?

SJ: You have to be into musical line in quite an extreme way. The plainsong – pure, horizontal music – is the key to that. Everything – phrasing, ensemble, legato, sound, tuning, concentration, musicality – is in the plainsong. And when you then sing polyphony it all makes sense because everyone is creating beautiful musical lines, there are just several of them going on simultaneously. I also think you have to be pioneering, whilst mindful of the choir’s past. Take the Victoria Tenebrae Responsories, for example: knowing the George Malcolm – and the David Hill(!) – way with those pieces, but very much putting one’s own spin on them. We revised our approach to Judas last year, giving him a really good going over.

DH: What are your plans for the choir? Do the new arrangements allow you the time and focus to develop the programme? Is the traditional ‘Westminster sound’ important to you or have you other ideas?

SJ: In 2025 we are doing a lot of touring: to the USA, Italy (Palestrina, to celebrate the 500th anniversary) and Hungary. Recording has always been important here, but the market is very different from your time – I’m envious… Our friends at the Ad Fontes label have helped us get back on our feet, and our albums for them will chart where we are as a choir at an important juncture in our history. There are other potential recording projects too, so our studio work will continue. I don’t think that the new boarding arrangements (the choristers go home after Friday Mass, returning on Sunday morning) have made much difference to the master of music’s timetable, but the programme develops anyway. Like many choirs, the pandemic highlighted our financial fragility, so we have started a choral foundation to raise a capital sum that protects us for the future. We’ve also developed a new recruitment strategy that is revealing some really promising future choristers.

Recovering the iconic sound of the boys was my first priority. I listened to a lot of the old recordings and was fascinated that, while the sound is always distinctive, there’s a lot of variation. The basic mix has always been influenced by the repertoire, the Latin and the Apse, and that seems to have encouraged a free and expressive, quite ‘bladey’ sound. I think we’ve got that core again and I’m now looking for flexibility depending on the repertoire. I’m not a fan of generic sound, particularly in earlier repertoire. Voices powerfully express the whole panoply of human emotion, and the evidence in the scores suggests that this was no different in the 16th century.

DH: What repertoire are you particularly keen to promote?

SJ: R R Terry programmed a lot of English Renaissance music in the early years here, and in 2023 we sang the entirety of Byrd’s Gradualia in services. Byrd’s music is endlessly inventive, and his story is so important to the Catholic church in these lands. There’s brilliant renaissance music out there, and that is the tradition in which we’ll always be rooted. We also plan to start commissioning again.

DH: You also have a wonderful reputation as an organist – are you managing to sustain that side of your life?

SJ: I still play from time to time, mostly abroad, and always wearing a big smile. But my main focus is now the choir, which is what I always wanted, so I’m happy to have passed the heavy-lifting of playing on to the next generation, while accepting the occasional ‘choice gig’. The Westminster organ is one of the very best, so I am fortunate to spend the odd hour with it, but even more lucky to hear Peter Stevens playing it so beautifully each day.

DH: You are also co-chairman of Harrison & Harrison, the organ builders. What does that involve?

SJ: I share the chair with my sister-in-law, Sarah Venning. She has an outstanding record in the world of business, so keeps an eye on that side of things while I maintain a broad overview of artistic matters. In reality, Andy Scott, the managing director, is so good that we don’t have much to worry about. It’s an amazing firm and I’m really proud of them.

DH: What can you tell us of future plans?

SJ: We’ve made great progress, but the choir still has a magnificent journey ahead: there’s just so much potential up there in the apse. I think I might hang around a bit longer…

David Hill is musical director of the Bach Choir and Leeds Philharmonic Society, principal conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum, and associate guest conductor of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra