Paul Griffiths (CEO)

Griffiths was a student of Malcolm Hicks and Stephen Farr. He is a licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music, an associate of the Royal College of Music. He also became an associate of the Royal College of Organists in 1982 and a fellow two years later. In 2000 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Royal College of Organists and became Chairman of the Executive Committee in 2002. In 2007 he became a Vice President of the college.

He is a regular accompanist for the RSCM Voices South Choir, the Dubai Singers and Dubai Chamber Choir at Christ Church in Jebel Ali.[6]

Griffiths has combined a business career with active participation in music and has appeared in solo recitals and orchestral performances throughout the world. Griffiths was organ and harpsichord accompanist for the Surrey-based Waverley Singers and Organist to the Cathedral Singers at Guildford Cathedral. He continues to participate in concerts and recitals both in Dubai and abroad, with appearances in 2017 at St Paul's Cathedral, The Temple Church and Westminster Abbey in London.[6] He has given organ recitals at St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St John's, Smith Square in London as well at the English Cathedrals of Ely, Wells, Bristol, Guildford, Coventry, Truro & Peterborough. Griffiths was featured as a soloist in the St Albans International Organ Festival and has appeared at Birmingham Symphony hall as soloist in Poulenc's Organ Concerto.

In 2016, he was inspired by the book 'Play it Again' by Alan Rusbridger, who, whilst editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper, decided to master Chopin's First Ballade, Op 23, in 12 months. Griffiths decided to set himself the challenge of learning the three complex and contrasting movements of Maurice Duruflé's Suite, Opus 6, against the deadline of performing the work at a solo recital in Westminster Abbey in August 2017. In February 2019 he played the organ for the Papal Mass held in Abu Dhabi, marking the visit of Pope Francis as the first visit by a leader of the Roman Catholic Church to the Arabian Peninsula. In August 2019, during a recital tour of the US and Europe, he appeared as an organ soloist at St Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway, in the St Olavs Festival, during which he also accompanied a performance of the Duruflé Requiem by the Utopia and Reality Chamber Choir.

Griffiths takes an active interest in collecting and restoring motorcycles and cars and is a regular participant in motorsport events in the UAE and overseas. He says that he has "a passion for anything that moves" and a love of "fast cars". He has driven a Lotus F1 car around the Hungary circuit.[6]