London’s Royal Academy of Music, established in 1822, is historically renowned for nurturing some of the world’s most famous musicians such as Elton John, Annie Lennox and Arthur Sullivan. Now, a Sydney Catholic is about to join these ranks.
Gerard Horsfall, the current director of music at St Peter’s in Surry Hills who has served the parish for nine years, is set pursue organ studies at the prestigious academy.
His passion for music and hard work has brought him a long way, from growing up in Albury in country New South Wales and moving to Sydney in 2012 to study music and civil engineering at UNSW. Horsfall had every intention of pursuing a job in engineering; God seemingly had other plans.
“The Lord opens doors when you least expect it,” he says. It was a friend (his now brother-in-law) who introduced him to the inner-city parish in 2014.
He joined the choir. Before long the parish had “taken a chance on me and made me director”.
“The door’s just kind of opened in front of me and it becomes pretty obvious where to go,” he said.
Parish priest Fr John Macdonald said the parish has a tradition of giving promising young adults the opportunity to begin a career in the performing arts, a notoriously difficult industry to break into.
“His perseverance has been really outstanding. The choir just wouldn’t be what it is without Gerard. There’s no doubt about that,” the priest said.
Parishioner Chantal Nguyen agreed, saying under Horsfall’s leadership, the choir approached music not just as “singing” tacked onto Sunday Mass, but as something “much deeper and to be treated with great intentionality and care: sacred music as an integral part of the liturgy, shaped by its proper form and order, and inextricably bound up with the sacred meaning, tradition, and universality of the church.”
“He is also fun at the pub,” she said.
Horsfall is a passionate advocate of “musicians who understand what the church asks of its sacred musicians” and for music as an integral part of sacred worship. He says the church is rediscovering this truth, he and is looking forward to the London opportunity to consolidate his craft for the glory of God.
“It’s a place that takes its music very seriously,” he added.
“If we’re going to praise the Lord with music, then we want to do it well. We need to enable people to train and then to perform the music to the highest of their ability.”
