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The British Organ in the 19th Century
September 15-18, 2011
Faculty
Lukas Arvidsson
Lukas Arvidsson has been the organist of Christ the King Catholic Church in Göteborg since 2004. He was born in 1984 in Vinslöv Skåne and studied the organ at the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg. Lukas has studied with Mikael Wahlin, Mattias Wager, prof. Hans Davidsson and Joel Speerstra (clavichord & harpsichord). Lukas concertizes extensively both in Sweden and abroad, most often at the organ but also clavichord, harpsichord and piano as well as violin (as a folk musician). Arvidsson is a popular improvisor, chamber musician and folk music player. In 2007 he toured with J. S. Bach’s Goldberg variations on harpsichord. At GOArt he presented the cycle on a two manual pedal clavichord. In 2010 the Walker organ from 1907 (III+P/55) was installed by Tostareds organbuilders at Christ the King Catholic Church in Gothenburg. The project was started in 2004, and Lukas was the project leader. He is currently enrolled in the early music diploma program at the Bremen School of the Arts.
Lukas Arvidsson's events in the academy:
Gothenburg Boys Choir
Gothenburg Boys Choir's events in the academy:
Stephen Cleobury
Stephen Cleobury is a versatile musician who relishes the opportunities he has to operate in a variety of roles and across a broad range of repertoire. At the centre of his musical life, for over a quarter of a century, has been his work as Organist and Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge. This has been complemented and refreshed by the many other activities in and beyond Cambridge in which he engages.
At King’s, he has sought to maintain and enhance the reputation of the world-famous Choir, widening the daily service repertoire, commissioning new music from leading composers, principally for A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and developing its activities in broadcasting, recording and touring. He has conceived and introduced the highly successful annual festival, Easter at King’s, from which the BBC regularly broadcasts, and, in its wake, a series of performances throughout the year, Concerts at King’s.
Between 1995 and 2007 he was Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers and since then has been Conductor Laureate. Amongst the premières that Stephen has given with the group are Giles Swayne Havoc, Ed Cowie Gaia, and Francis Grier Passion, all with the distinguished ensemble, Endymion. His recordings with the BBC Singers include albums of Tippett, Strauss and Bach.
Performances as an organ recitalist have taken him to locations as diverse as Houston and Dallas, Leeds and Birmingham Town Halls, Westminster, Lincoln and St David’s Cathedrals, the Performing Arts Centre in Hong Kong, Haderslev Cathedral in Denmark, and Salt Lake’s huge LDS Conference Center, where he played to an audience of several thousand people. At the American Guild of Organists’ Convention in Minneapolis-St Paul in 2008, he gave the première of Judith Bingham’s organ concerto, Jacob’s Ladder; in the Messiaen centenary year he performed La Nativité du Seigneur in King’s Chapel, inaugurating a complete Messiaen cycle he had designed there. He has recorded Bach Clavierübung Pt.3 and the Leipzig Chorale Preludes for BBC Radio 3; discs of on the organ of King’s include albums of music by Howells and Elgar and a DVD of mixed repertoire was released in 2009 by Priory Records.
Stephen has played his part in serving a number of organisations in his field. He is a former President of the Royal College of Organists, Warden of the Solo Performers’ section of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, and President of the Incorporated Association of Organists; he is currently Chairman of the IAO Benevolent Fund. He was appointed CBE in last year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Stephen Cleobury's events in the academy:
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- Evensong
Samuel Eriksson
Samuel Eriksson, organist and choir master of Varberg Church, studied music at the University of Gothenburg where he graduated in 2002 with a Master of Fine arts in Church Music. He has also studied at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Alongside his duties at the Varberg Church Samuel enjoys commitments as both soloist and accompanist . International solo appearances include St Paul's Cathedral in London, St Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne as well as the Arundel Music Festival.
Samuel Eriksson's events in the academy:
Erland Hildén
Erland Hildén has been organist and choir director of Örgryte New Church since 1998. Before that, he was assistant cathedral organist in Karlstad. Hildén performed his diploma concert for Prof. Hans-Ola Ericson’s concert organist class in the autumn of 2008. Earlier degrees: Choir Pedagogy 2001; Masters in Organ 1991; Music Teacher exam 1987; Cantor’s exam 1986. He also studied composition and counterpoint with Lars-Erik Rosell and Hans Eklund at the School of Music in Stockholm. Hildén began to play the organ at age 20 (having begun with the piano), after a staggering meeting with the leading avantgarde organist Karl-Erik Welin who became Hildén’s mentor and friend. Hildén often makes inspiring visits to his house in Värmland where he has his own house organ! As a composer, Hildén already has 50 compositions in his opus list for a variety of instruments, although the organ holds a central place. Recently Erland has recorded a CD of his own music in Örgryte New Church on the Proprius label.
Erland Hildén's events in the academy:
David Knight
Dr David Knight is Conservation and Grants Officer of the Cathedral And Church Buildings Division of the staff of the Archbishops' Council. Responsibilities in this post include casework relating to organ conservation and replacement in the Church of England, a grants programme for conservation of Church furnishings and coordinating a national programme of training events. His PhD from King's College, London, is on the Organs of Westminster Abbey, 1240 to 1908. He is Organist & Choirmaster at Crown Court Church of Scotland, Covent Garden.
David Knight's events in the academy:
Andrew McCrea
Andrew McCrea studied organ at the Royal College of Music with John Birch and Nicholas Danby, and with the assistance of a scholarship from the Leverhulme Trust continued his organ studies with Jacques van Oortmerssen at Amsterdam Conservatorium, where he specialised in early performance practices. Further postgraduate study was undertaken at Reading University. He was the recipient of the Royal College of Organists' Forsyth-Grant/Hurford Scholarship in 1992. Andrew joined the staff of the RCO in 1994, and since 2003 has held the position of Director of Academic Development, which includes responsibility for the College's examination programme, its publications (he is commissioning editor of the annual RCO Journal), and its Library and Archive. Since 1999, McCrea has also held a post as a professor of academic studies at the Royal College of Music, London.
Andrew McCrea has published a number of articles on aspects of British organ music and performance practice (for the Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, the RCO Yearbook and Cambridge University Press’s Companion to the Organ), and on the history of organ-building in the Baltic countries (including, as author and editor, The Nordic-Baltic Organ Book: History and Culture, Göteborg: GOArt, 2003). He has also held a number of appointments as organist in churches, and as an organ recitalist his concert engagements have included, beyond the UK, recitals in Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, South Africa, and Sweden. In 1997 he was a finalist in the Lahti International Organ Competition in Finland.
Andrew McCrea's events in the academy:
Katharine Pardee
Katharine Pardee is Betts Fellow in Organ Studies at the University of Oxford, Lecturer in Music at Corpus Christi College, and Director of Chapel Music at Wadham College.
Before moving to England in 2001, she served as University Organist and Director of Chapel Music at Syracuse University, NY, where she was also on the faculty of the School of Music. More recently, she was interim Assistant Professor of Organ at the Eastman School of Music, also in upstate New York. An active teacher and performer, she has made two cds with the Pro Organo label, and has performed widely in the United States, England, and on the continent. Having earned both a masters and doctoral degree in organ performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music in New York, she is currently engaged in researching the reception of J. S. Bach in nineteenth-century England.
Katharine Pardee's events in the academy:
Stina Persson
Stina Persson began playing the organ in Orsa with Mats Lissdaniels. From 1989 to 1991 she studied at the Falun Music Conservatory with Mats Åberg. In 1991 she began her studies at the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg, studying with Hans Davidsson, among others. Stina has served as the organist for the Bergsjön congregation and the Landvetter-Härryda congregations, and from the first of July of this year has begun her new position in the Örgryte congregation.
Nicholas Plumley
Nicholas Plumley has been a schoolmaster for most of his professional life, and taught in one of England's most famous schools, Christ's Hospital, for over 20 years. He then became the school's librarian, curator and archivist and created a museum there in 1994. He is an authority on British organs and organ cases and has published major works on the organs of the City of London (1996) and, together with the late Austin Niland, the organs of St. Paul's Cathedral (2001), as well as monographs on organs in such places as Chichester Cathedral and Tewkesbury Abbey. His major work on J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd. is in preparation.
Nicholas also serves as Diocesan Organs Adviser for the Chichester Diocese and has designed numerous organ cases for organs in churches at home and abroad. He is a professional painter of topographical subjects. Together with his wife, he has over the last 12 years formed a representative collection of historic keyboard instruments and modern copies in his own home. These are frequently used for concerts, teaching and private study.
Nicholas Plumley's events in the academy:
Iain Quinn
Born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1973, Iain Quinn began his musical training as a chorister at Llandaff Cathedral. After initial studies of the piano and trumpet at the Welsh College of Music and Drama he concentrated on the organ, studying with Robert Court and Nicolas Kynaston. In 1994 he moved to the United States to pursue advanced study at The Juilliard School, New York and later The Hartt School, University of Hartford (Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude), and the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University (Master in Music). His principal teachers during this time were John Weaver, Larry Allen, Thomas Murray, William Porter (improvisation) and Nathan Williamson (composition). He also holds the diplomas of Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music (with distinction).
Iain Quinn's events in the academy:
Ian Richards
Ian Richards was born in England in 1957. He began playing the organ at the age of 8 but received his first organ lessons at the age of 11 whilst a pupil at St. Olave’s School in Orpington, Kent. He was educated at the Royal College of Music in London from 1975-1979. His organ tutors there were Herrick Bunney, Richard Popplewell and Nicholas Danby. He was awarded the B. Mus degree in 1978, FRCO in 1977 and ARCM (Performers’ Diploma) in 1978. He was organ scholar at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London from 1977-1979. After further studies with David Sanger he moved to Norway in 1981 to take up the post of organist at Oddernes Church in Kristiansand where he still works.
Gordon Stewart
Gordon Stewart is one of the UK’s busiest organists. He was born in Scotland and studied in Manchester, England and Geneva. His teachers included Gillian Weir and Lionel Rogg.
He was a Cathedral Organist for 15 years in Manchester and Blackburn and has for 20 years been one of the few remaining Civic Organists in the UK, playing the 1860 Father Willis organ in Huddersfield Town Hall.
He has played concerts throughout the UK and Europe, in the United States, Canada, South Africa and Australia. He has played concertos with the Orchestra Victoria, , the BBC Philharmonic, Northern Chamber Orchestras and the Orchestra of Opera North with whom he gave the first British performance of the Andrew Carter Concerto, recorded for release later this year.
He has recorded on the Priory, Vif, Lammas and Dolcan labels on organs in the UK and in South Africa.
Gordon was for many years the Senior Organ Tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music and now teaches at Cambridge University. Former students have held positions in such places as Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Wells Cathedral and Coventry Cathedral.
Gordon Stewart's events in the academy:
Swedish Chamber Choir
The Swedish Chamber Choir (Svenska Kammarkören), formerly known as Simon Phipps Vocal Ensemble, was founded in Gothenburg in 1997. The choir has during the last years established itself as one of the leading mixed choirs in Scandinavia with acclaimed recordings and various awards and prizes from international choir competitions. Most recent, the choir was the Grand Prix-winner in Concorso Polifonico Internazionale i Arezzo (2010) and appointed finalist in the EBU broadcasting competition “Let the Peoples sing”. The choir is frequently invited to International concerts and choir festivals, for example Musica Sacra International in Marktoberdorf in 2012.
Nicholas Thistlethwaite
Dr Thistlethwaite is author of The Organs of Cambridge (1983/2007) and The making of the Victorian Organ (1990), and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Organ (1999). In addition, he has written various other monographs, articles, and reviews relating to the organ and church music. Recent conference papers include “Bach and the English Organ” (Leipzig 2008) and “The Influence of Mendelssohn in England” (Rochester, USA, 2009). Dr. Thistlethwaite served for many years as Secretary and later Chairman of the British Institute of Organ Studies. He has acted as an adviser to the Council for the Care of Churches, English Heritage, the Arts Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund, and is a member of the Association of Independent Organ Advisers. He was a member, and latterly Vice-Chairman, of the Advisory Board for Redundant Churches.
He was Organs Adviser to the Diocese of Ely from 1992-99, and is currently Organ Adviser to the Diocese of Guildford. He was a member of the Cathedral Fabric Commission for England (2001-11) and is a member of the Westminster Abbey Fabric Commission (2010- ). As an organ consultant he has advised on the restoration or reconstruction of organs in Birmingham Town Hall; Eton College Chapel; the University Church in Cambridge; Buckingham Palace; Ely Cathedral; St. Edmundsbury Cathedral; St. Anne, Limehouse; Reading Town Hall; St. James Garlickhythe; and St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London. He has overseen the building of new organs for Chelmsford Cathedral; St John’s College, Cambridge; Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge; and St Alban, Copenhagen. Current projects (2010) include the restoration of organs in Christ Church, Spitalfields (1734); and Thaxted Parish Church (1821).
Dr. Thistlethwaite is Sub Dean and Precentor of Guildford Cathedral, and a former Chaplain and Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Nicholas Thistlethwaite's events in the academy:
Mikael Wahlin
Mikael Wahlin received his Soloist Diploma in organ from the University of Gothenburg. Among his competition successes is a first prize for interpretation from St. Albans, England in 1989. He has performed at venues such as the Riverside Church, New York City; the Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, CA; Birmingham Town Hall; McEwan Hall and St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh; Hull City Hall; Chartres Cathedral; and St Bavokerk, Haarlem, among others. Major orchestral appearances include Copland’s Symphony and Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante. Mikael Wahlin works as a senior lecturer in organ at the Ersta Sköndal University College and at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He also teaches at the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg.
Peter Williams
Peter Williams is a former Dean of Music in the University of Edinburgh (also the first Director of the Russell Collection of Harpsichords) and emeritus Arts & Sciences Chair of Music at Duke University, North Carolina. An early student of Thurston Dart and Gustav Leonhardt, he has concentrated as a recitalist on the harpsichord, and as a scholar on the history of the organ and, more recently, J. S. Bach. His first book was The European organ 1450–1850 (1966), his most recent publication Bach, A life in music (2007, German trans. 2009). His two favourites, however, are The Chromatic Fourth during four centuries of music (1997) and The Organ in western culture 750–1250 (1993). He has served as trustee both of the British Institute of Organ Studies and the Royal College of Organists.
Peter Williams' events in the academy:
Örgryte Church Choir
The Örgryte Church Choir is the main liturgical choir in Örgryte New Church (in Göteborg, Sweden) as well as a choir for oratorios like Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, the St. John Passion, Mozart’s Krönungsmesse, Requiem among otheres. In these larger productions the choir is often accompanied by members of the famous Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra. The choir has also made productions in other styles like Lloyd Webber’s rock opera ”Jeus Christ Superstar.” The choir has toured Germany, Hungary, Iceland and Estonia. We are a mixed choir of 25-50 members depending on the project. All singers are amateurs above the age of twenty.
The Örgryte Church Choir's events in the academy:
From the blog
July 14, 2011
May 26, 2011
About the Academy
The Göteborg International Organ Academy is a festival, organized by the Göteborg International Organ Academy Association in cooperation with the City of Göteborg and GOArt and the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg.
