Philip Duffy (born 1943) is a British church musician. He was the Master of Music at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral from 1966 to 1996 and a Principal Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University from 2000 to 2008. Duffy is also the founder and director of the Liverpool Bach Collective.
Education and early life
Duffy was born in Liverpool in 1943.[citation needed] After an abortive start to learning the piano at seven, he commenced serious study of the instrument with Albert Griffiths when he was sixteen.[citation needed] In 1960, he began organ lessons with Noel Rawsthorne.[citation needed] When he was in sixth form at St. Edward's College (now the Cathedral Choir School), the Lutyens' Crypt of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral was completed and brought into use. Duffy then decided to join the newly-formed cathedral choir.[1]
Duffy was associated with the music of Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King for over thirty-six years; for most of them, he was Master of the Music (1966–1996).[citation needed] Eight months before its consecration and opening, Duffy was offered the post of Acting Choirmaster at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Master of the Music, working in partnership with his brother Terence (who was Cathedral Organist until 1993).[citation needed] At Duffy's instigation, the Metropolitan Cathedral was among the first in the country to offer its choristers individual vocal tuition.[citation needed]
As it was held in Liverpool, Duffy was responsible for the music of the liturgical celebrations that opened and closed the 1980 National Pastoral Congress of the Roman Catholic Church. Theologian Fergus Kerr described the celebrations in the New Blackfriars journal:[2] "The settings … by Philip Duffy… taken up easily by the whole congregation… were of an almost barbaric but utterly disciplined beauty, unprecedented in any English Catholic Church in modern times…" Duffy's work was recognised afterwards by Pope John Paul II, who appointed him a Knight of the Equestrian Order of Saint Gregory the Great.[citation needed]
His composing for choir and congregation was recognised again in 1982. During another visit by Pope John Paul II to Britain, Duffy's music was chosen for the large-scale papal masses that took place in Liverpool, Wembley, Manchester, Cardiff and Crystal Palace.[citation needed] Of the Papal celebration in Liverpool, The Tablet reported that "Liverpool's Glorias, Alleluias and Hosannas must have brought Heaven running to the windows.”[citation needed] During this year, Duffy also founded the Metropolitan Cathedral Orchestra.[citation needed]
Other activities
Duffy was a member of the Roman Catholic Bishops' National Committee on Church Music for many years.[when?][citation needed] He has also been a member of the councils of Universa Laus (an international society of liturgists and musicians) and the Royal School of Church Music.[citation needed] At the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Duffy was a member of the Archbishops' Commission on Church Music in the Anglican Church from 1988 to 1992.[citation needed]
Since leaving the cathedral, Duffy has undertaken singing and conducting engagements. Recent activities[when?] have included the roles of tenor soloist in Mozart's Requiem and baritone soloist in Brahms' Requiem.[citation needed] Duffy has often acted as chief cantor for the Schola Gregoriana, a Cambridge-based group dedicated to Gregorian chant.[citation needed] He led this group on a ten-day recital tour of Venice.[citation needed] He is the Associate Director of Music of the Schola[3] and he continues to lead chant workshops in parts of the country.[citation needed]
Duffy worked at Liverpool Hope University from 2000 to 2015. Besides lecturing in music, he led the degree programme BA in Creative and Performing Arts.[citation needed] Duffy retired from a full-time post as Principal Lecturer in 2008 and became the university's Director of Performance, then for several years continued as Director of the University's Chamber Choir.[citation needed]
In 2013, Duffy founded the Liverpool Bach Collective.[4] The group performs Bach cantatas at Sunday Evensong in churches around Liverpool. The Bach Collective consists of eight singers and about ten instrumentalists. In its first three years, the Collective performed 29 cantatas in 19 different churches.[citation needed]
Duffy was the producer and presenter of a weekly classical music programme. The programme aired on Radio City, Liverpool's independent local radio, for the first nine years of its existence.[5][6]
