Graham Eccles first studied the organ at Worksop College in Nottinghamshire; during this time he gained his LTCL and ARCO diplomas.
He subsequently studied at the Royal Northern College of music in Manchester under Ronald Frost and was appointed Boddington Organ Scholar at St. Ann’s Church. As well as graduating from the college with an upper division diploma he gained the diploma in professional performance and the Alice Shawcross prize in Church music. He also achieved the ARCM and FRCO diplomas at this time.
For many years he was a regular organist for the BBC Daily Service on Radio 4 and he served as an examiner for the ABRSM for over a decade.
He has been Assistant Organist at Chester Cathedral and Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Asaph and Bangor Cathedrals.
From 2004, Graham became a freelance musician, teaching and performing locally. He is a visiting tutor in organ at Bangor University, and has a long association conducting of Colwyn Bay Choral Society as well as St Asaph Choral Society as conductor and now as accompanist. He is in regular demand as an organ accompanist by many other choirs and Choral Societies of the North West and has been Organist at Birkenhead School for a number of years and is accompanist of Chester Music Society Choir. He has played many times with the RLPO and Hallé orchestras.
He has teamed up with John Hosking in producing a ‘sample set’ of the organ of Blackburn Cathedral – this enables organists using an organ console at home or anywhere else to play virtually this or other sets of significant instruments through the ‘Hauptwerk’ computer programme. It is rather like a flight simulator for organists and has become very popular worldwide.
He is currently very happy to be deputising regularly as an organist for Chester Cathedral while there is a vacancy in the music department.