Ian Keatley, director of music at Southwark Cathedral

Ian Keatley once described church music as “a bridge to Heaven” and from the perspective of the seven-year-old chorister who first set foot in Southwark Cathedral in 1989, it was hard to disagree. That visit was part of a tour with the choir of St George’s Church, Belfast, and a souvenir photograph was taken of him at the high altar with his father and two brothers.
He was back at Southwark in 2002 as a 20-year-old organ scholar. Over the next two years he not only played the organ but also started the Merbecke Choir, a chamber ensemble for singers who have left cathedral choirs but want to continue exploring a range of repertoire at a high level. It continues to flourish today under Emily Elias.
Five years ago Keatley returned to Southwark for a third time, now as organist and director of music. His responsibilities included not only the music for the regular offices but also for the memorial services for Dame Hilary Mantel (obituary, September 23, 2022) and Dame Vivienne Westwood (obituary, December 30, 2022) as well as for the national service of thanksgiving to mark 75 years of the Windrush generation in June 2023.
In February 2020 the Southwark choir were involved in filming scenes in the cathedral for the Netflix series The Crown. A month later came the first of the country’s Covid lockdowns, during which Keatley painstakingly prepared click tracks in the deanery garden. He sent them to the cathedral’s lay clerks, who recorded their parts on video. These were then spliced together to create the online services.
Keatley’s work, like his faith, stretched beyond the doors of the cathedral and the gates of the deanery garden. In his contribution to the cathedral’s 2024 annual report, he explained that while “the raison d’être for any cathedral choir is of course the daily services”, his mission extended across the diocese, adding: “I regularly visit schools to give talks, lead assemblies and run auditions while building professional relationships to reflect our commitment to maintaining an inclusive and outward-facing cathedral community.”
Ian Keatley was born in Belfast in 1982, the youngest of three sons of James and Vivien Keatley; they survive him with his brothers Simon and Niall, who is a trumpet player of some distinction. As a child he played the viola, though that soon fell by the wayside.
He sang with the choir of St George’s, Belfast, under Jonathan Gregory, who in 1993 arranged for him to spend a week in England singing with the choristers of St Albans Abbey directed by Barry Rose. That experience, he recalled, led to “an appreciation for our great Anglican choral tradition”. After a choir trip to Edinburgh in 1995 he vowed to learn the organ, “and nothing could stop him”, one childhood friend recalled.
From Lagan College, Belfast, he went to the Methodist College Belfast (or Methody) before taking his A-levels at Wells Cathedral School, where he was a vicar choral in the cathedral choir singing countertenor. At the Royal College of Music, where he won a performance prize, he played continuo for a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio by the college Baroque Ensemble conducted by Peter Schreier (obituary, January 8, 2020), the German tenor.
Keatley went on to work with the choirs of Croydon Minster, the Chapels Royal at the Tower of London, and All Saints Fulham. In 2004 he was appointed organ scholar at Westminster Abbey and director of music at the abbey choir school, playing for occasions such as the service to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the memorial services for Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, the former prime minister, and Ronnie Barker, the comedian. He was especially proud of an organ and bagpipe duet recital he gave there in 2009 with Pipe Major Jim Motherwell, personal piper to Queen Elizabeth II.
He joined Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in 2012, helping to build a strong music programme and championing “come and sing” events while navigating the challenges presented by the cathedral clergy’s many strong personalities. Seven years later he returned to south London, now responsible for the music at Southwark Cathedral.
A handsome and prematurely balding figure with a warm laugh, Keatley was a bon viveur and a great cook who hosted lavish and memorable dinner parties at his home close to the Globe Theatre. He was an eager participant in wine tours of France, seeking out music, art and architecture, especially that of the baroque and Renaissance eras, wherever he went. New interests excited him such as sailing, which he did for 18 months.
Keatley never lost touch with his Irish roots and was involved with the Charles Wood Festival of Music and Summer School, named in honour of the Irish composer, which is held in churches around Co Armagh. He founded its girls’ choir, directed their debut recording in 2021 and was due to be directing their concert in Portadown on August 15.
Two weeks before he died, Keatley welcomed the choir of St John’s Church, Malone, in the south of Belfast, to sing for the weekend’s services at Southwark Cathedral, along with members of his family. It was a fitting, and now poignant, recreation of that moment when, aged only seven, he stood by the high altar with his father and brothers.
Ian Keatley, organist and director of music at Southwark Cathedral, was born on March 10, 1982. He collapsed and died while on holiday in Austria on August 5, 2024, aged 42