A FORMER Organist and Master Of The Choristers at Blackburn Cathedral who left for America in 1982 has returned to his East Lancashire roots.

John Bertalot recently retired as Director Of Music at Trinity Church in Princeton, New Jersey, a position he had held for more than 15 years.

He has returned to live in Nickey Lane, Mellor, but is looking forward to returning to America in the spring to lead workshops, and is set to tour Australia and New Zealand in the year 2000.

In Princeton, he oversaw one of the most ambitious and highly respected episcopal choir programmes in the USA. He was also founder and director of the Princeton Singers, a thirty-voice classical chamber choir which toured England in 1988, 1994 and 1996.

He was made an honorary Doctor Of Music in Princeton University Chapel last May, and now holds the post of assistant musical director of the Royal Society of Choral Music.

Mr Bertalot, who was at Blackburn for 18 years, kept in touch with his friends in Britain through regular newsletters, and brought musical groups across the Atlantic to Blackburn Cathedral on a number of occasions.

While at Blackburn Mr Bertalot founded the Blackburn Bach Choir, which won the BBC's national competition Let The People Sing two years running.

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