Music Centre staff

Director of Music and Reader in Music

Michael Downes

Michael Downes became the University's first full-time Director of Music in 2008, having previously held a similar post at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He read English and Music at King's College, Cambridge, and completed a doctorate on Debussy at the University of Sussex. He studied the cello with teachers including Ioan Davies and Timothy Mason and conducting with teachers including Lionel Friend and Colin Metters. At the Music Centre Michael conducts the St Andrews Chamber Orchestra, Byre Opera, St Andrews Chorus and the McPherson Singers as well as contributing to a range of academic modules. Michael’s new book on Wagner’s Ring cycle is published in the UK by Faber and Faber as Story of the Century, and in the US by Pegasus Books as Wagner and the Creation of the Ring. It was named in the Presto Music Awards as one of the five best music books of 2024, and described by Gramophone magazine as ‘the best introduction to the Ring out there’.

Deputy Director of Music and Senior Lecturer in Music

Bede Williams

Bede first started working at the Music Centre in 2010 as an Associate Teacher of trumpet. In 2012 he was appointed as an Associate Lecturer and New Music Coordinator and in 2017 became Head of Instrumental Studies. In 2023 he was appointed Deputy Director of Music, leading a large team of teaching, outreach and administration staff. He teaches on a broad range of modules including Music Leadership and Ethnomusicology, as well as modules that incorporate performance, composition and chamber music. With Michael Downes he shares the conducting of the St Andrews Chamber Orchestra and a range of other ensembles. He is Director of StAMP (St Andrews Music Participation), a philanthropically funded project that aims to reinvigorate brass playing across Fife by working with schools and brass bands. As a soloist and chamber musician he has toured and recorded widely and is known for his work with many distinguished composers. Notable premieres include concertos by Jeremy Thurlow, Eve De Castro Robinson and Ian McQueen. In 2023 he became a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in 2024 Chairperson of the Glasgow Barons, a multi-genre music charity that has developed a new model of a professional orchestra.

Administrative Assistant

Angèle Baum

Our Administrative Assistants are the face of the Music Centre in the evenings and at weekends, providing a warm welcome to all our visitors and members and helping them to access our services.

Head of Programming

Chris Bragg

Chris is responsible for programming and facilitating all public events at the Laidlaw Music Centre and serves as the primary contact for building hire. He also coordinates touring and recording activities for St Salvator’s Chapel Choir and acts as the main point of contact for prospective choral and organ scholars. In addition, he is Artistic Director of St Andrews Organ Week. Chris studied organ performance at the former RSAMD and at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and has given solo recitals in six European countries and the USA. He continues to perform and teach, and regularly writes and presents on organ design, history, conservation and advocacy. He is the founder and project leader of Sowne of Organe (sowneoforgane.com), which surveys, records, promotes and lobbies on behalf of Scotland’s endangered collection of unaltered historic organs.

Music Centre Administrator

Ruth Carr

Ruth administers the day-to-day operation of the Music Centre. She also assists with administrative aspects of the Summer Organ Week and other Music Centre summer courses.

Music Consultant

Gillian Craig

Gillian Craig is a St Andrews graduate (1977), and has taught in the university since 1981. She directs the St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra (StAFCO), the St Andrews Renaissance Singers and the Heisenberg Ensemble. She runs a popular ‘Listening to Music’ class (now in its 35th year) for members of the local community.

Lecturer and Coordinator of Academic Music

Michael Ferguson

Michael is programme co-director of the MLitt in Sacred Music degree and teaches on 'Words and Music', 'Understanding Music', 'Making Music' and 'Electronic Music'. As Coordinator of Academic Music, he is responsible for overseeing the running of the Music Centre's undergraduate academic modules.

Music Centre Manager

Helen Gregory

Helen oversees the operation of the Music Centre, its services and facilities. She is responsible for the centre’s finance systems and manages the Strings in Spring chamber music course.

Director of Chapel Music

Claire Innes-Hopkins

Administrative Assistant

Lucy Hindle

Our Administrative Assistants are the face of the Music Centre in the evenings and at weekends, providing a warm welcome to all our visitors and members and helping them to access our services.

Head of Music Technology

Jonathan Kemp

Jonathan is module coordinator for PH4036 Physics of Music, MU2004 Electronic Music and MU2002 Scottish Music and is in charge of technology use in the Laidlaw Music Centre including the Recording Room and rooms for amplified music making. He also leads the Music Centre's jazz/funk/rock fusion band, St Andrews Fusion. Research interests include the physics of guitar and bass strings (commercialised under the name Kemp Strings) and also brass instrument acoustics. Jonathan has a LLCM(TD) teachers diploma in electric guitar and also plays bass, banjo and mandolin in addition to singing. His musical output includes work with the university’s unofficial Americana band Dry Island Buffalo Jump and with Teannaich Ceilidh Band.

Early Career Music Outreach Fellow

Dan Kempsell

Dan supports music ensembles within the Laidlaw Music Centre and music outreach projects across St Andrews and Fife with St Andrews Music Participation (StAMP). Dan is a clarinettist, community musician and music tutor based in Central Scotland, with a Bachelor of Arts in Music, with first class honours. They have worked across Scotland with organisations such as the Tinderbox Collective, National Youth Orchestras of Scotland, Sistema Scotland and the SCO, in a variety of roles spanning arts management, music education and pastoral support. They continue to perform with a clarinet trio and orchestra in Edinburgh and are working on research interests including the social impact of music, the creative process, and musical composition using poetry.

Academic Administrator

Diane Lyons

Diane provides administrative support for the ten undergraduate modules.

Deputy University Organist

Andrew Macintosh

Andrew is responsible for wedding music in the University chapels. He plays for most weddings in the University and advises wedding couples on the music for their ceremonies.

Head of Vocal Studies

Jonathan May

Jonathan leads a team of visiting voice teachers who deliver approximately 100 voice lessons per week. He has overall responsibility for matters vocal within the Music Centre and in academic modules. He is project coordinator for Byre Opera and curates and organises the St Andrews Vocal Pedagogy Course, currently in its fourth year. As a performer in the solo bass-baritone operatic repertoire Jonathan sang regularly for Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and Royal Opera and for various European companies in such roles as Commendatore (Don Giovanni) Monterone and Sparafucile (Rigoletto) and Ferrando (Il Trovatore). Recent performances include Dream of Gerontius for St Andrews Chorus and a solo recital of Schubert, Vaughan Williams and Verdi in the Laidlaw Music Centre Lunchtime Concert Series.

Lecturer (Education Focussed) and Adviser of Studies

Jane Pettegree

Jane coordinates first year modules 'Understanding Music', 'Words and Music' and 'Introduction to Ethnomusicology'. She teaches on 'Scottish Music' and has an online blog called Soundyings: Conversations on the History of Scottish Music in which she (and others) regularly post on topics ranging from medieval plainchant to accordion dance bands to post-punk pop – see https://soundyngs.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/. She also contributes to the Sacred Music MLitt programme, and to interdisciplinary teaching in other units and summer schools. Other research interests include the phenomenology of listening, and environmental soundscapes. Outside of the University, she directs the choir at St Andrews Episcopal Church, and is involved in the Royal School of Church Music’s Scottish area membership events.

Technician and Operations Coordinator

Graeme Steel

Head of Outreach

Ellen Thomson

Ellen is responsible for devising music outreach projects across Fife working with a range of different community partners and schools. She also collaborates with departments across the University on public engagement initiatives and involves students in the delivery of projects when possible.

Associate Lecturer and University Organist

Tom Wilkinson

Tom teaches on the Sacred Music MLitt and a variety of undergraduate modules. As University Organist, he teaches the organ scholars and plays for graduations. A Bach specialist, he has recorded the complete Trio Sonatas for Organ, and contributed a chapter to the Cambridge Companion to the Bach Cantatas.