Chapel Music: Who’s Who?

Neil Cockburn
Director of Chapel Music

Hailing from St. Andrews, Scotland, Neil Cockburn’s musical education was at Oxford University (BA Hons, Music), the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, (MusM, Organ Performance, and the Professional Performance Diploma, PPRNCM), the Conservatoire National de Région Rueil-Malmaison, France (Premier prix de perfectionnement), and the University of Calgary (PhD, Musicology). He won First Prize at the 1996 Dublin International Organ Competition, and has received numerous other prestigious awards, including the W. T. Best Memorial Organ Scholarship, a scholarship from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, and the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Prize.

Prior to coming to King’s he was Director of Music at the Anglican Cathedral Church of the Redeemer in Calgary, Alberta, a position he combined with teaching organ at the University of Calgary and performing organ and harpsichord with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

From 2000-2015 he was Head of Organ Studies at Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, where he worked alongside Simon Preston on the International Summer School (2000-2009), and he was Artistic Director of the Calgary Organ Festival (2010-2015). He was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award (Credit Free) by Mount Royal University in June 2014. He held the University of Calgary’s Cantos Music Foundation Organ Scholarship, a guest faculty position, celebrating the inauguration of the new North German Baroque organ built by the Ahrend Organ Company of Germany from 2006 until 2009.

Pronouns: he/him

Email: neil.cockburn@ukings.ca

Kip Johnson
Graduate Conducting Fellow

Kip Johnson (he/him) is a baritone, composer, and multi-instrumentalist from Monterey, California. He graduated from the Fountain School of Performing Arts (BMus, composition) in 2023. Kip is a long serving choral scholar with both the King’s College Chapel Choir and the Choir of the Cathedral Church of All Saints. 

Kip was the recipient of the 2023 Owen Maitzen Prize in Composition, as well as the winner of the 2023 Arcady Emerging Artist Composition Competition. His choral piece Forsaken was performed in the 2023 Open Waters Festival in Halifax, as well as in the King’s College Chapel on Good Friday. 

Alongside his composition work, Kip is an accomplished performer, joining Musique Royaleb for a 2023 tour of Handel’s Messiah, singing the title role Aeneas in the Dalhousie Opera’s 2020 production of James Rolfe’s opera Aeneas and Dido, and performing Mozart’s Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen in the Fountain School of Performing Arts Concerto Night in 2020.

Kip also performs with various folk ensembles in the city, playing banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, guitar, and low whistle, with a focus on traditional music of the British Isles and the folk revival. 

Email: kipjohnsonmusic.com/contact