Ashley Grote is Master of Music at Norwich Cathedral and a fellow of the Royal College of Organists. Born in 1982, Grote grew up in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

and attended Eld Lane Baptist Church with his family, where he sang in the choir and first played the organ. He joined the

Choir of King's College, Cambridge The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is an English Anglican choir. It is considered one of today's most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great English choral tradition. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded King's Coll ...

at the age of eight in response to a newspaper advertisement for voice trials. He then attended Uppingham School and returned to King's in October 2001 as an organ scholar. He won first prize in the 1999 Royal College of Organists Young Performers' Festival. In 2000 he was the first organist ever to win a place in the keyboard final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. Prior to appointment as Master of Music at Norwich Cathedral in 2012, Grote was Assistant Organist at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

, and Assistant Director of Music at

Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to S ...

. He has regularly competed in the London marathon to raise funds for

Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital ...

, following his daughter's diagnosis with a brain tumor in 2014.

References

English choral conductors British male conductors (music) English classical organists British male organists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of King's College, Cambridge 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century organists 21st-century British male musicians Organ Scholars of King's College, Cambridge Choristers of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge Male classical organists {{England-musician-stub