Matthew Searles

Matthew Searles is Assistant Master of the Music at Buckfast Abbey. In this role Matthew shares in the accompaniment of the Abbey Choir and monastic community in the Opus Dei, and has particular oversight of the Abbey’s new provision of choristers. In 2018, at the conclusion of Buckfast’s millennium celebrations, Matthew played for Midnight Mass, which was televised live on BBC One. Prior to this, Matthew spent two years as Sub-Organist of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Matthew studied at Royal Holloway, University of London, where as organ scholar he graduated with First Class Honours and the Driver Prize for ‘outstanding musical performance’. Matthew continued his studies, in both the organ and the harpsichord, at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Poitiers, France. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.

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    Flor Peeters was one of the most significant Catholic composers of the twentieth century, whose deeply spiritual œuvre incorporates elements of Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony. This recording celebrates his Latin choral music, a perfect assimilation of the motu proprio of Pope Pius X in 1903, which was unjustly neglected following the Second Vatican Council but is now sung in both Catholic...
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    The Choir of Buckfast Abbey presents music for the Mass of Christmas Day. Weaving between the Gregorian chant propers are George Malcolm’s evocative Missa ad Præsepe (Mass at the Crib), and traditional carols and festive motets. The much-loved hymn Adeste fideles opens the Mass, progressing from the original plainsong melody through to a dramatic new arrangement of the penultimate verse, epitomising the joy of the Incarnation.
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    The Choir of Buckfast Abbey presents music for the First Vespers of Our Lady of Buckfast, the Abbey’s patronal feast on 24 May. The Gregorian chant of the Monastic Rite is interspersed with glorious polyphonic works by Felice Anerio, William Byrd and Francisco Guerrero, culminating in the splendid Magnificat Octavi toni by Tomás Luis de Victoria. A thrilling new arrangement of the traditional devotional hymn Hail, Queen of heaven is the climax of...