New cathedral organist and choir school teacher takes long and winding road to Utah

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James Goldrick

SALT LAKE CITY – James Goldrick has been teaching students at the Madeleine Choir School for almost two years, but he didn’t set foot on the campus until this April.

The school’s new associate director of music, Goldrick taught the students remotely from Sydney, Australia because of the pandemic lockdown, which lasted until October 2021 in his country. The immigration process took another few months, so it wasn’t until  April of this year that Goldrick arrived in Utah.

“My first day was Chrism Mass, which was a wonderful baptism of fire,” he said.

This fall he is happy to be teaching in person at the choir school, where he helps with all the choirs. He has particular responsibility for the St. Therese girls’ choir.  

“It is wonderful to get to know the kids,” Goldrick said of his new in-person school year. “To be able to start the school year afresh is always wonderful.”

In addition to teaching at the choir school, Goldrick also serves as an organist and choral conductor at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

“James has a great rapport with the students already and has great skills in terms of vocal development and choral conducting,” said Gregory Glenn, the school’s pastoral administrator and the cathedral’s director of liturgy and music. “He has had a breadth of experience, including serving at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney where they have a similar choir school, and St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane.”

Goldrick, whose family emigrated to Australia from Manchester, England when he was a child, has always wanted to be an organist, he said. After attending Jesuit schools, he earned a Bachelor of Music in organ from the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music. Upon graduation, he became the first organ scholar of Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, Australia, and won the Michael Dudman Prize for organ.

Christ Church Cathedral “‘poached’ me straight out of university and that got me into the world of choirs and organ; that was the real start,” he said.

Goldrick was then appointed assistant director of music of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane, and director of music of St. John’s College, University of Queensland. In 2018 he won a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame. After graduation from Notre Dame, he was hired by the Madeleine Choir School and the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

In addition to his other responsibilities at the cathedral, Goldrick will be the director of a new women’s choir the cathedral is starting. “We’re reaching out into the community for adult volunteer singers who are keen to join in the services at the cathedral,” he said.

“James will take a great deal of pressure off of the current staff and will contribute considerably to the musical life of the school and cathedral,” Glenn said.

Goldrick is the middle child of three, all of whom are musicians. His sister is an opera singer in London; his brother is a guitarist in Sydney. He already loves Salt Lake City, he said. “Salt Lake City is lovely; the views are amazing. The way it’s laid out is wonderful.”

He has enjoyed the hospitality of the people of Utah, he said. “They’re some of the most polite and welcoming people I have ever met; it’s really lovely.”

For information about the cathedral’s women’s choir, contact Goldrick at jgoldrick@utmcs.org or aray@utcotm.org.