Holy Trinity Church, Skipton has appointed versatile conductor, pianist and organist Graham Coatman as its new director of music.

Graham directs several Yorkshire choirs and ensembles, including the Leeds Guild of Singers, Huddersfield University Chamber Choir, Pennine Singers, and his own contemporary groups, Contraband, and the Leodis Consort.

He has also been a guest conductor with Skipton Camerata and is regular continuo player with Leeds Baroque Orchestra.

As director of 20,000 Voices, Graham is accustomed to leading large choral events and creative workshops and in the summer conducted A Choral Spectacular in Leeds Town Hall, involving 150 singers and musicians.

He will be conducting a Come and Sing Messiah in May.

A commissioned composer, he saw his music theatre piece The Witch Of Slatterdale premiered at the 2013 Swaledale Festival, and Kaito, for saxophone and piano, has just been released on CD. He teaches at Leeds College of Music, specialising in performance studies and composition.

Jill Wright, churchwarden at Holy Trinity, said: “We are delighted to have been able to appoint someone of Graham’s calibre and look forward to welcoming him to the church at the beginning of February.”