NMSM Officers

Roger Watkinson

SEO, Vice Chairman and Safeguarding Officer

Roger, a retired schoolmaster, is the organist at Lord Street West United Church, Southport, a post he has held for over 35 years.

He joined the School’s Management Committee in 2017.

Dr Colin Porter

Chairman

Dr Colin Porter has been organist of Mossley Hill Parish Church since 1985. He isa recitalist and for nearly 20 years was Director of the Liverpool Festival Choir.

He is a Senior Fellow of the NMSM. He is an Hon.Fellow of the Guild of Musicians & Singers and an Associate Fellow of the National College of Music & Arts, London.

He was made a Doctor of Sacred Music {Hon.DSM} and a Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Liturgical Musicians by the JHPC University.

Dr Paul Melville

General Secretary, Clarion Editor & Data Protection Officer

Paul has been a member of the NMSM since it began, transferring his membership from the former Lancashire School of Music. He became Secretary following his retirement from teaching.

Mark Rawsthorn

Bursar

Mark Rawsthorn has been the Organist at Ormskirk Parish Church since January 2012, succeeding Michael Kelsall. Prior to this, he had served for 11 years as Organist & Choirmaster at the Priory Church of St Thomas-the-Martyr, UpHolland.

Previous appointments include St Agnes, Ullet Road, Liverpool and St Mary’s, Walton-on-the-Hill, Liverpool, both of which were renowned for their superb choral traditions, as well as St John’s, Ainsdale, where he was responsible for the remodelling of the small Willis II organ, and St James’s, West Derby, where he presided over the glorious 1869 Wm. Hill Organ, which remained in almost original condition.

Mark took up the post of Bursar for the NMSM in June 2023.

Chris Pilsbury

Academic Registrar

Chris was educated at Chester Cathedral Choir School and The Royal Northern College of Music. He studied organ with Eric Chadwick and Roger Fisher and has held several organists’ posts in and around Chester.

Before returning to Chester he was Organist, Choirmaster and Director of Music at Pennthorpe School in West Sussex. During his time there the Chapel Choir sang at most cathedrals and choral establishments in the south including Canterbury, Ely, Winchester, Oxford, Salisbury, Portsmouth and Chichester Cathedrals and on several occasions, sang the weekend services at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and Truro Cathedral. He was a member of the music department at The Queen’s School, Chester and for over twenty five years an ‘A’ Level music examiner for EDEXEL.

For over a decade he assisted with the training of the Girls’ Choir at Chester Cathedral. Chris has been organist at Wrexham Parish Church, North Wales since St. David’s Day 2014. We hope many of you will get to know Chris and we welcome him as a member of the Management Committee.

Dr Michael Pretty

Archivist

Michael was born in Fakenham, Norfolk and moved to Attleborough, also in Norfolk at the age of 5.

He joined Attleborough church choir alongside his father at 7. His first school was St. Priscas, run by French nuns, and he then went to middle, secondary, Norwich city college and CCAT. After service in the RAF he joined a firm of solicitors in Norwich, and later joined a firm opposite the Law Courts in London, where he became a legal executive, having passed the ILEx exams.

In 1967 he spent 2 years as organist at Oban Episcopal Cathedral, and joined Rothmans in London when he came south, and was organist at Holy Trinity, Stroud Green. He had a keen interest in organs and how they worked, as a teenager, and it became a hobby from 1976 when he went to study in Leeds, and helped a friend dismantle several instruments, and repaired and tuned others. In the early 1980s he was awarded the contract to rebuild and enlarge the organ in Wimborne Methodist Church, which was recorded by Priory Records.

Michael retired from full time work in 2007, and has been organist at St. Mary’s Parish Church, Hemsby since 2003.

Stewart Hankinson

Committee Member

Stewart has had a long and varied career as a singer, conductor, accompanist and organist, performing all over the UK. He has taught privately and in schools and colleges, most recently as Head of Performing Arts in a large high school in Manchester.

He is now on the staff of the University of Liverpool where he teaches singing and works with the university choirs. Additionally he teaches singing and piano at two independent music academies and at Ripley St Thomas CofE Academy in Lancaster.

Since the age of fifteen, when he formed his first choir, Stewart has been very involved in choral music and has directed many ensembles, including Fylde Opera Group and Bolton Chamber Choir. He currently directs the Ainsdale Singers in Southport and Warton Singers in the Fylde. He is also the Director of Music at St. Paul’s Parish Church, Warton.

Dr Keith Karrington

Committee Member

By profession Keith is a PhD synthetic organic chemist. As a Parish Church organist in Cheshire, he became very interested in the development of digital church organs. In 2004 he took on the role of Managing Director of Makin Organs Ltd.

Following Makin’s acquisition of Copeman Hart & Company Ltd from Ernest and Cheryl Hart in 2011, the company was rebranded as Church Organ World and now markets and provides customer support for Copeman Hart, Johannus, Rodgers and Makin products in the UK. Keith is now a Senior Manager at the Global Organ Group which oversees these companies worldwide.

In 2024 Keith was awarded with three Honorary Fellowships for services to church music from the Three Counties School of Music, the Cotswold Society of Church Musicians and the North & Midlands School of Music.

In his spare time Keith is involved heavily in the local community being a Director of his old school Trust for fifteen years and Chair for twelve until he resigned in early 2019. In the past he has taught Business Studies classes and thoroughly enjoys making high quality traditional wooden furniture in his own workshop.

Dr Anthony Tam

Committee Member

For over thirty years, Anthony Tam has pursued a career as a music educator, examiner, competition judge and author. He has been appointed as a music examiner for a few boards in the UK, Australia and India. Over the years, he has accumulated extensive experience in evaluating students. Furthermore, he is a highly sought-after adjudicator in various international competitions, including the Steinway Competition.