Dr Rebekah Okpoti

Dr Rebekah Okpoti Lectures in Musicology at Liverpool Hope University and is Director of Music at Lancaster Priory and is also known as The Girly Organist. 

Rebekah studied at Chethams School of Music, going on to win 1st place in the European Student Convention and Russian and Baltic States Convention (Rachmaninoff category). Following this Rebekah studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, under Peter Lawson, as a Pianist. Rebekah then completed her MA in Music Practice followed by a PhD in Sonic Installation Art and Composition through the University of Central Lancashire under Film Maker Professor Erik Knusden. Rebekah studies Organ under Professor David Baker in 2020. 

2020 saw the international release of the Finding Home Collection released in UK, USA, China as a Reimagined Last Supper of Miniature 1:12 scale of Sonic Installation Art Pieces. In 2021 SetFootPress released Rebekah’s Experimental Organ Music recorded as field recordings during the Covid19 pandemic. The album Dressing was released as both a limited run cassette & digital. Rebekah was a Recording and Audio engineer for the Global Sound Movements Uganda Sample Library and was a Score Proof-reader for the Geoffrey Tristram Mass in A flat Published 2022 by Banks of York. 

Rebekah has run Arts Council Funded National Lottery Projects Organs of Anne Lister Project (BBC’s Gentleman Jack) as part of the Anne Lister birthday Week Festival 2022 where she was commissioned to write a contemporary Organ sonata. Anne Lister’s Organ Sonata was premiered at Halifax Minster, England. Along with the Women Chained to the Cathedra Project as part of the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral Centenary Celebrations by composing a new Chamber Opera Adelaide Watt, The Unwanted Burden, Premiered in January 2024. Rebekah delivered an interdisciplinary creative project, Organ and RGB Photography, with colleague Dr Ian Clegg called The 7 Lamps of Cumbria, Ruskin.This was exhibited in the Blue Gallery at Brentwood House, Coniston in Summer 2023. You can see Rebekah perform in recitals throughout the UK. 

As a writer her scholarly work includes thesis focused upon the Repatriation of Domesticity within Sonic Installation Art and the role of Installed Musical Composition to facilitate engagement with Space, Void, Poise, Sculpture and Composition. Other activities include writing a chapter on Digital Submissions: in Benchmarking Library, Information and Education Services for Elsevier. Rebekah Co authored two books with colleague Patrick Lo in Hong Kong titled Stop The War: Performing artists across the world call for Peace in Ukraine and Inside Hong Kong’s Leading Arts and Cultural Scene. Rebekah is editor to the UK’s 2nd largest specialist organ magazine, The Organ Manual. Rebekah has published 2 organ sonatas Anne Lister’s Organ Sonata 2022 and John Ruskin Organ Sonata 2023 by Tim Knight Music Publishers. Rebekah has performed concerts and worked with charities in the Uk, Russia, France, Atlanta, Mozambique and Brazil. 

Rebekah was Associate Organist at Leeds Cathedral, UK and went on to lead the research and innovation project, Choir Church from Blackburn Cathedral, in Lancashire. Rebekah saw this project launch 8 Choir Churches and built the programme to reach over 2000 primary school children weekly engaging them with Mass and building new church communities. Rebekah authored the Choir Church curriculum and supported a team of musicians who worked with Headteachers and Clergy. Rebekah then progressed to Lancaster Priory as Director of Music.