A NEW director of music has been appointed for Blackburn Cathedral, with bosses hailing him an ‘outstanding young man’.

Samuel Hudson, 27, is current director of music at Girton College, Cambridge, and will replace Richard Tanner in running the choirs this September.

Mr Tanner left recently for a post in London after 12 years in charge at Blackburn.

Canon Andrew Hindley, of the cathedral, said: “We had an outstanding list of candidates for the position, but Samuel stood out as a young man of considerable talent.

“We are sure he will make a big musical impression in Blackburn.”

Samuel said yesterday: “I am obviously delighted to have been appointed, and am looking forward to com-ing to Blackburn.”

Born in Croydon, south London, Samuel has been interested in music since learning the piano aged seven. He became a choir-boy in a local church, and started to play the organ at an early age.

His musical education continued at Girton College, Cambridge, where he was organ scholar.

He followed this with two years as senior organ scholar at Wells Cathedral, in Somerset.

Currently he is also college organist at Haileybury School, in Hertfordshire, assistant organist at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, in London, and assistant director of music at All Saints’ Church, in Hertford.

Over the course of his career so far, Samuel has accompanied and conducted choirs in cathedrals across the country, as well as on several CD recordings, and on tours to Hong Kong and Japan, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Germany.

As an organ recitalist, Samuel has played at Wells, St Paul’s, and Bristol Cathed-rals, Bath Abbey, Christ-church Priory, and Girton and St John’s Colleges, in Cambridge.

Samuel became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organ-ists in January 2008.