Notes on the Contributors
Kimberley Jane Anderson is a PhD candidate in the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA), University of St Andrews. Her thesis explores the spiritually transformative potential of ‘progressive’ rock as experienced by fans, drawing on responses to a qualitative survey, her own, situated aesthetic analysis, and phenomenological accounts of imaginative experience.
Jonathan Arnold is Dean of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford. He is a former member of The Sixteen, author of Sacred Music in Secular Society (2014), and co-founder of Frideswide Voices.
Stuart Beatch studied music and composition at the University of Regina, the University of Alberta, and King’s College, London. His music has been performed by ensembles across North America and the UK, including the BBC Singers, the National Youth Choir of Canada, Pro Coro Canada, the Chronos Vocal Ensemble, the Elysian Singers, musica intima, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Choral Arts Initiative.
Kerensa Briggs is Composer in Residence at Godolphin & Latymer School, and previously studied composition at King’s College, London, where she also held a choral scholarship. She won the ‘National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award’ (2014), and her music has been recorded by Delphian Records for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland.
George Corbett is Senior Lecturer in Theology and the Arts, University of St Andrews. He teaches and researches in theology and the arts, and in systematic and historical theology, and he is the author of Dante and Epicurus: a Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfilment (2013), and co-editor, with Heather Webb, of Vertical Readings in Dante’s ‘Comedy’, 3 vols. (2015, 2016, 2017).
Dominic de Grande studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded the Sir Arthur Bliss Prize for his portfolio of compositions. Specialising in contemporary classical and electronic music, he has composed the scores for award-winning documentaries and films, and has long-term partnerships with leading visual and video artists and choreographers.
Seán Doherty is Assistant Professor of Music at Dublin City University in the School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music, where he is active as a composer, musicologist, and performer. Originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, he read music at St John’s College, Cambridge, and received his PhD at Trinity College, Dublin.
Michael Downes became the University of St Andrews’ first full-time Director of Music in 2008, following a similar post at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He conducts the St Andrews Chorus, Scotland’s largest choral society, and is the founding artistic director of Byre Opera. His publications include the first full-length study of the music of Jonathan Harvey.
Rebekah Dyer is a theological researcher and creative practitioner based in Scotland. She graduated with a PhD in Theology, Imagination and the Arts from the University of St Andrews in 2018.
Michael Ferguson is Director of Music at St Mary’s Metropolitan RC Cathedral, Edinburgh, and Teaching Fellow in Music, University of St Andrews. His academic research encompasses music and religion, community music-making, and the creative process. As a composer for film, his music has appeared on BBC, Channel 4, and at film festivals worldwide, and his choral music has been performed in the UK, Ireland and the USA.
Caleb Froehlich is a PhD candidate in the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA), University of St Andrews. His thesis examines how ostensibly non-religious art in the United States opened up or introduced young people to religion during the first half of the 1970s.
Gavin Hopps is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Theology, and Director of the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA), University of St Andrews. His particular interests are in Romantic writing and contemporary popular music, and he is the author of Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart (2009), editor of Byron’s Ghosts: The Spectral, the Spiritual and the Supernatural (2013), and co-author, with David Brown, of The Extravagance of Music (2018).
William P. Hyland is Lecturer in Church History, University of St Andrews. He specializes in Medieval Church history, with a particular focus on monasticism and spirituality, and he is the author of Custody of the Heart: Selected Spiritual Writings of Abbot Martin Veth, O.S.B. (2001), and president of the editorial board of Premonstratenisan Texts and Studies.
Marian Kelsey recently completed a PhD in Hebrew Bible in the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. Her research investigated the use of inner-biblical allusions and literary context in the book of Jonah.
James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful composers, whose works are performed and broadcast around the world, and he is also internationally active as a conductor. He is Professor of Theology and Music, University of St Andrews, the founder of The Cumnock Tryst, and was awarded a knighthood for his services to music in 2015.
Anselm McDonnell is a PhD candidate in Music Composition at Queen’s University Belfast. He is the winner of the International Kastalsky Choral Writing Competition (2018), and he has worked with ensembles including the CRASH Ensemble, C4 Conductors/Composers Collective, BBC Singers, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the Ulster Orchestra.
Margaret McKerron is a PhD candidate in the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews. Drawing on the work of Scottish theologians Thomas Erskine of Linlathen and Alexander John Scott, her research considers the relevance of personal relationships in theological education and hermeneutics.
Paul Mealor is an internationally acclaimed composer, and Professor of Composition at the University of Aberdeen. The first president of ‘Ty Cerdd’, Wales’s National Centre for music making, and Vice-President of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the North Wales International Music Festival, he received the Glanville Jones Award, from the Welsh Music Guild, for his outstanding contribution to music in Wales (2013).
Madhavi Nevader is Lecturer in Hebrew Bible, University of St Andrews. Her main areas of research are the political theology of the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts, as well as Prophecy and Israelite/Judahite religion.
Matthew Owens is recognised as one of the UK’s leading choral conductors, choir trainers, and organists. He is Founder and Artistic Director of Cathedral Commissions, which commissions new works from pre-eminent British composers, and the innovative festival new music wells at Wells Cathedral, where he is Organist and Master of the Choristers. He is a published composer with Oxford University Press and Novello.
Lisa Robertson is a PhD candidate in Music Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her music has been performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Red Note Ensemble, and Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, among others, and at the Sound Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and on BBC Radio 3.
Mary Stevens was a cloistered, contemplative Carmelite nun for thirty-three years, before gaining an MLitt and PhD in Theology at the University of St Andrews. Her doctoral research considered the theology of consecrated life presented by Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Redemptionis Donum, with particular reference to his theological anthropology, soteriology and sanjuanist spirituality.
Tom Wilkinson is Teaching Fellow in Performance, University of Edinburgh, and engaged in doctoral research on the music of J. S. Bach. From 2009–2018, he was University Organist and Director of Chapel Choirs, University of St Andrews; he will become University Organist and Associate Lecturer in Music from July 2019.