Resounding recitals for summer Saturdays at York Minster
Every Saturday from 26 July to 23 August 2014
It has often been said that the cavernous space within York Minster provides the organ with the most acoustically stunning sound that has few rivals, and this July and August, visitors will have the chance to listen to the instrument played by some of the best organists around as part of the Summer Organ Recitals series, each Saturday from 26 July to 23 August 2014.
Graham Barber is well known as an international concert organist, described by Gramophone Magazine as ‘one of the organ world’s finest recording artists’. He opens the concert season, taking to the console on Saturday 26 July.
John Scott Whiteley has been associated with York Minster’s organ for many years and now has the title Organist Emeritus (an honorary title given to those who retire from service) and played in the Minster from 1975 until 2010, before retiring from the ‘day job’ to pursue a freelance career. He has 26 solo CDs to his credit, and features on almost as many as an accompanist. He returns to the Minster on Saturday 2 August.
Peter King is the director of music at Bath Abbey, where he not only plays but also helped design and install the Klais organ. Peter and will be performing on Saturday 9 August, following a tour to The Netherlands.
The final two concerts will be performed by York Minster’s current musical team, starting with assistant director of music, David Pipe, who takes to the console on 16 August. Robert Sharpe, the director of music for York Minster, completes the line-up and the Summer Organ Recital series, on 23 August.
“We are delighted to be welcoming Graham Barber and Peter King for this concert series, and it is always an absolute pleasure to hear John Scott Whiteley’s return to York Minster, so we are very much looking forward to this year’s Summer Organ Recitals,” comments Robert Sharpe. “With an instrument as complex as the organ in York Minster, it will come as no surprise that each performer bring their own style and sound to their performances, so this should make one of our best ever summer seasons.”
The origins of the main pipe organ in York Minster date from 1834, when it was rebuilt following a major fire of 1829, and has since been refurbished and reconstructed a number of times. The most obvious part of the organ – the decorative pipes on the front of the Kings Screen – do not actually sound, with the majority of the sounding pipes located behind the front and in the aisles on either side. The most recent refurbishment took place in 1993, although regular maintenance and tuning has to take place to keep the organ in peak condition. As constant a temperature and humidity level within the cathedral is important to keep the instrument in tune.
Tickets for each concert at £9.00, and available from the York Minster box office or online at www.yorkminster.org
ENDS
Performer biographies
About Graham Barber
Since his début in London at the Royal Festival Hall in 1979, Graham Barber has been recognised as one of the world’s leading concert organists. He has given concerts in major venues in Britain, Europe, the Far East, the United States and Australia, and has been widely broadcast. Reviewing his first recording in 1975, the Sunday Times described him as a ‘technically brilliant, musically mature organist.’ He has made CDs on many English, German and Dutch organs and has been described in Gramophone magazine as ‘one of the organ world’s finest recording artists.’
Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds since 2009 and sometime Visiting Tutor in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, Graham Barber is a freelance concert organist and keyboard player and Organist at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Armley where he is custodian of the celebrated Schulze organ. He has given master-classes at conservatories in Weimar, Enschede, Braga, Lisbon and Cologne. In October 2004 he was Distinguished Academic Visitor at the University of Adelaide. In 2006 he was the recipient of a prestigious NESTA Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.
Graham Barber has performed in concert with many of the world’s leading conductors including Sir Edward Downes, Sir Charles Groves, Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Georg Solti, Jan Pascal Tortelier and Sir David Willcocks.
About John Scott Whiteley
John Scott Whiteley is Organist Emeritus of York Minster, having worked at that great cathedral from 1975 until 2010 when he retired from the Minster in order to pursue his freelance career. During the past ten years he has become well-known for his performances on BBC2 and BBC4 television of the complete organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach. 21st-Century Bach was a joint commission by BBC2 and BBC4 and began in 2001. The series continues and is planned to run for several more years, after which time some eighty programmes will have covered Bach's entire output for organ. The series was described by the British daily national newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, as "a triumph both nationally and musically."
Having studied at the Royal College of Music with Ralph Downes and W.S. Lloyd Webber, and with Flor Peeters in Malines and Fernando Germani in Siena, John Scott Whiteley won first prize in the1976 National Organ Competition of Great Britain. He then performed at the Royal Festival Hall, for the UK Annual Conference of the Incorporated Association of Organists, and at festivals throughout Europe. In 2013 he was selected as the organist for the Bach Recitals at St Petersburg's Mariinsky Concert Hall, which took place before audiences of over a thousand people. Since 1985 John has toured the USA every year.
John now has twenty-six solo CD recordings to his credit, and a further twenty-two as accompanist. His CD, Great Romantic Organ Music, appeared for eight years in the Penguin Good CD Guide as one of the best recorded organ recitals, and several other CDs have won awards, notably a Critic's Choice Award from The Gramophone.
About Peter King
A former student of Dame Gillian Weir and Allan Wicks (Organ), and Ronald Smith (Piano), Peter King was appointed Director of Music at Bath Abbey in 1986. Under his direction the Abbey Choir has visited Germany, Holland and France, and has released six CDs and broadcast on BBC TV and Radio 3. In 1997 Peter started a Girls’ Choir at Bath Abbey; it quickly established itself as one of the finest musical ensembles in Bath. Together with Nicolas Kynaston, Peter was responsible for the design and installation of the Abbey’s Klais Organ. His seven CDs with Bath Abbey Choir and his 12 CDs on the new abbey organ have been highly acclaimed by the critics.
Peter was Assistant Chorus Director to the CBSO during all of Sir Simon Rattle’s reign as Musical Director and he still plays the organ regularly with the orchestra. He plays on Rattle’s EMI recordings of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and Symphony of a Thousand. His recitals at the Bath Mozartfest have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Peter King holds the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Bath.
About David Pipe
David Pipe joined York Minster as Assistant Director of Music in September 2008, having previously played the organ at Guildford Cathedral. He read Music at Cambridge University, later studying organ at the Royal Academy of Music, having gained a postgraduate entrance scholarship. His organ teachers have included David Titterington, Susan Landale and Lionel Rogg. As Organ Scholar of Downing College, Cambridge, David directed and accompanied the Chapel Choir for services and concerts at home and abroad, passing the examination for Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists as an undergraduate.
Whilst studying a masters at the Royal Academy of Music, he was Organ Scholar and Director of the Merbecke Choir at Southwark Cathedral, participating in tours and a recording with the Cathedral choirs. He conducted the Merbecke Choir in front of a worldwide audience at the end of the Queen’s Christmas Message in 2006, and later led the first performance of a piece written for the group.
David performs regularly as an organ recitalist, accompanist and conductor. Recent recitals have included the fringe of the Worcester Three Choirs Festival, the Cambridge Summer Music Festival and Westminster Cathedral, as well as tours to Vermont and Colorado in the USA; he recently performed Poulenc’s Organ Concerto with Sheffield Symphony Orchestra. Performances as continuo player have included Monteverdi’s Vespers and Bach’s B minor Mass in Exeter Cathedral, and a concert of English Restoration music with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet in Cambridge. As conductor, performances have included major works by Handel and Haydn; he appeared recently as guest conductor for York Musical Society, performing Handel’s Samson in York Minster in 2011. David became Principal Conductor of York Musical Society in March 2012.
About Robert Sharpe
Robert Sharpe is Director of Music for York Minster and a well-known concert organist. Described as “playing with authority and musical persuasion” [Organists’ Review], his programmes feature music from all periods, with a bias towards the 19th and 20th century French school as well as 20th century English repertoire and the works of J S Bach; there is always an emphasis on musical contrast and style for each concert.
He held positions at St Albans Abbey, Exeter College Oxford (from where he graduated with a degree in music) and Lichfield Cathedral where he was assistant organist before moving to Cornwall as Director of Music at Truro Cathedral, and then to York. His teachers have included Roger Bryan, the late David Sanger and the late Nicholas Danby.
Sharpe has made numerous recordings in recent years both as organ soloist and with the choirs of Truro Cathedral and York Minster. These have all received critical acclaim, being described as “playing which is assured and musical… the crescendos are brilliantly managed” [Organists’ Review]; “my top billing among this year’s Christmas discs… Truro serves up one superb track after another” [Church Times] and “tending toward a vocal purity that is truly outstanding” [MusicWeb International].
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Jay Commins
Pyper York Limited
Tel: 01904 500698
Email: jay@pyperyork.co.uk
