about the artistic director

from the artistic director

About the Artistic Director

Sydney Birrell, F.R.C.O, G.R.S.M., A.R.C.M. is the founder and conductor of the Peterborough Singers, as well as Director of the Ministry of Music at Murray St. Baptist Church and organist at Lakefield College School. Syd was born in Sarnia, Ontario, and began his career as a young chorister at St. George's Anglican Church, Montreal. He studied at the Royal School of Church Music in London, England, and the Royal College of Music, winning a Sawyer Prize in Organ performance. Returning to Canada in 1975, he took the post of organist and choirmaster at St. John's Anglican Church in Peterborough until 1984. Syd performs regularly and has given organ recitals across Canada, and in Mexico and the USA. Outside of music, Syd is well known in Canadian pediatric cancer research circles for his work in raising awareness and funds to find a cure for neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, through the James Birrell Fund for Neuroblastoma Research at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. Syd is also a published writer, and an inspirational speaker for the National Speaker's Bureau.