Francis Grier was Assistant Organist and then Organist at Christ Church Cathedral between 1976 – 1985 and gave the first ever Prom concert given over to a solo performer in 1985. He is now a psychoanalyst and composer. His major new setting of the Passion, to a text by the poet and novelist Elizabeth Cook, commissioned by the BBC and VocalEssence, was performed in Minneapolis in March 2006. The Minneapolis Star Tribune described the work as: a modern masterpiece. When it was performed in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, the Independent wrote: ... it's a humdinger of a new work. ... Overall, The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth is a work of vital attack, shivering beauty and compelling power ..
Francis has written two Masses for St Paul's Cathedral, London: in 2010, the Missa Spiritus Sanctus for soloists, choir and instrument ensemble; in 2011, the Missa Brevis for choir and organ, for which he received a British Composer Award in 2012.
In 2011, he also wrote A Sequence for St Davids for cellist Natalie Clein, soprano Natalie Clifton-Griffith and the choir of St Davids Cathedral for the St Davids Festival. He was commissioned to write a new work for the Choirbook for the Queen which was performed in Glasgow Cathedral for the formal Jubilee Thanksgiving visit of the Queen to the city on 4th July 2012. The award-winning London-based choir, Pegasus, commissioned and premiered two new works in September 2012 and the choir of King's College Cambridge will be performing his new setting of the Vespers in the near future. The Missa Aedes Christi was commissioned by Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, for performance in June 2013.
