Gordon studied music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (then the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama), winning prizes in Music History and Choral Conducting, and graduated from the BEd (Music) programme with First Class Honours in 1994.
At the University of Glasgow, Gordon undertook postgraduate research into the history of Scottish church music and song schools (15001700) with renowned Scottish musicologist Dr Kenneth Elliott. He completed his PhD thesis in 1999 and has since published various articles and editions on the subject.
Gordon began his academic career teaching at the Music School of Douglas Academy, and lecturing at Glasgow University and RCS in areas such as music history, harmony and counterpoint etc. In 2012, Gordon moved to Dublin to become Head of the Conservatory of Music and Drama at Dublin Institute of Technology.
Gordon returned to Scotland as Director of Music at RCS in February 2015. He is a member of the Conservatoire Senior Management Team, responsible for the leadership of the School of Music, academically, artistically and operationally. The School of Music has around 550 higher education students on three undergraduate programmes and two postgraduate programmes, specialising in classical music, music education, jazz, traditional music and opera.
As General Editor of Musica Scotica, Gordon promotes research into and performances and publications of Scottish music of all periods. He is also an External Examiner at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has served as External Examiner at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the University of Aberdeen, and Trinity College Dublin, and he was a member of the 12th Council of the General Teaching Council for Scotland.
Gordon has given guest lectures on Scottish music in the UK and America, and has contributed articles, chapters and editions to various publications including Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Indiana University Press, 2010), Our awin Scottis Use: Music in the Scottish Church up to 1603 (Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen, 2000), the fourth edition of the Church Hymnary (”˜CH4’), and Dear Green Sounds: Glasgow’s Music Through Time and Buildings (Waverley Books, 2015). He has alsojoint edited a volume of essays on Scottish Music: Notis musycall: Essays on Music and Scottish Culture in Honour of Kenneth Elliott (Musica Scotica, 2005).
