RBCS Choir Director

Sue Heath-Downey, GRSM, ARCM, LRAM, ARCO is a London-based professional freelance musician. After studying Organ, Piano, Harpsichord and Choir Training at the Royal Academy of Music, Sue worked in various musical fields including journalism, orchestra management and record production, in addition to performing, teaching and conducting. She is now mainly active as a choral conductor, organist and tutor.

Sue has given solo recitals in many countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Australia and USA, as well as St Paul’s, Westminster, Southwark, Coventry and Chester Cathedrals in the UK. Recently she has performed at Southwark Cathedral, St Michael and All Angels, Croydon, Bromley Parish Church, St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, and in the Devizes Festival and Cartmel Priory Summer Festival.

Sue is currently Organist of St Paul’s Church, Deptford, and Musical Director of the Elizabethan Singers of London. She has held posts as Organist and Director of Music at the German Church in Knightsbridge and St Magnus the Martyr in the City of London. Until recently, she was Artistic Director and Organiser of the IAO’s annual ‘London Organ Days’. As a tutor, she teaches Organ at Bacon’s College in south London, and Piano from beginner level to Grade 8 and beyond.

Always passionate about access to music for everyone, Sue is strongly committed to developing music-making in her local community and to building bridges between amateur and professional musicians. She is Conductor and Music Director of the Rotherhithe & Bermondsey Choral Society (RBCS), which she founded in 1998, and of the Welcome Singers (Southwark Pensioners’ Choir). In 2009 Sue established the RBCS Chamber Orchestra, which brings together young professional musicians from the London music conservatoires and proficient amateur players.

Sue enjoys many different musical styles and genres, and this is reflected in the wide-ranging and stimulating repertoire she chooses for her choirs.