St Albans International Organ Competition
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St Albans International Organ Competition
The International Organ Festival (IOF) is a biennial music festival and organ competition held in St Albans, England since 1963. Originally held annually, it was changed to every two years in 1965 due to the complexity of organising the increasingly ambitious programme. The festival is run mainly by volunteers. Background The festival was conceived by the organist and choirmaster of St Albans Cathedral, Peter Hurford, to celebrate the building of a new organ at the cathedral by Harrison & Harrison. The main competitions are still conducted on this instrument, its eclectic style and modern electropneumatic action now complemented by another self-contained tracker action instrument which the International Organ Festival Society, the charity which runs the Festival, has had built for its own use and sited at St Saviour's Church, St Albans. This was built by Peter Collins in the style of, and in homage to, the early 18th century German organ builder Andreas Silbermann. There is a n ...
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Thomas Trotter (musician)
Thomas Andrew Trotter (born 4 April 1957) is an English concert organist. He is Birmingham City Organist, organist of St Margaret's, Westminster, visiting Fellow in Organ Studies in the Royal Northern College of Music and president of St Albans International Organ Festival. Biography Born in Birkenhead, he was a pupil at Malvern College and studied music at Cambridge University where he was organ scholar at King's College. He also studied under Marie-Claire Alain, winning the ''Prix de Virtuosité'' in her class. He won first prize in the interpretation competition at the St Albans International Organ Festival in 1979 and made his debut in the Royal Festival Hall the following year. He was appointed to the position of Birmingham City Organist in 1983, succeeding Sir George Thalben-Ball. Trotter also studied the violin. In Birmingham he plays regularly in the city's Symphony Hall and Town Hall, usually including contemporary compositions in his recitals. He is also noted ...
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Temple Church
The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem. During the reign of King John (1199–1216) it served as the royal treasury, supported by the role of the Knights Templar as proto-international bankers. It is now jointly owned by the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court, bases of the English legal profession. It is famous for being a round church, a common design feature for Knights Templar churches, and for its 13th- and 14th-century stone effigies. It was heavily damaged by German bombing during World War II and has since been greatly restored and rebuilt. The area around the Temple Church is known as the Temple. Temple Bar, an ornamental processional gateway, formerly stood in the middle of Fleet Street. Nearby is Temple Underground station. History Construc ...
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St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade I listed building. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. The present structure, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed in Wren's lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the city after the Great Fire of London. The earlier Gothic cathedral (Old St Paul's Cathedral), largely destroyed in the Great Fire, was a central focus for medieval and early modern London, including Paul's walk and St Paul's Churchyard, being the site of St Paul's Cross. The cathedral is one of the most famous and recognisable sights of London. Its dome, surrounded by the spires of Wren's City chur ...
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Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. The site on which the cathedral stands in the City of Westminster was purchased by the Diocese of Westminster in 1885, and construction completed in 1903. Designed by John Francis Bentley in neo-Byzantine style, and accordingly made almost entirely of brick, without steel reinforcements, Sir John Betjeman called it "a masterpiece in striped brick and stone" that shows "the good craftsman has no need of steel or concrete". History In the late 19th century, the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy had only recently been restored in England and Wales, and it was in memory of Cardinal Wiseman (who died in 1865, and was the first Archbishop of Westminster from 1850) that the first substantial sum of money was raised for the new cathedral. The land was acquired in 1884 by Wiseman's successor, Car ...
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Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the Anglican diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford. This dual role as cathedral and college chapel is unique in the Church of England. History The cathedral was originally the church of St Frideswide's Priory. The site was historically presumed to be the location of the nunnery founded by St Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford, and the shrine is now in the Latin Chapel; originally containing relics translated at the rebuilding in 1180, it was the focus of pilgrimage from at least the 12th until the early 16th century. In 1522, the priory was surrendered to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who had selected it as the site for his proposed college. However, in 1529 the foundation was taken over by Henry VIII. Work stopped, but in June 1532 the college was refounded by the King. In 1546, Henry VIII transferr ...
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The Minster School, York
The Minster School was an independent preparatory school for children aged 3–13 in York, England. It was founded to educate choristers at York Minster and continued to do so, although no longer exclusively, until in June 2020 it was announced that the school would close at the end of that term. The building is Grade II listed. Location The school occupied today's 8 Minster Yard, part of a complex of buildings in York, directly across from the York Minster. History The school traced its origins to a "song school" founded in 627 by Paulinus of York, the first Archbishop of York, however the current school was re-founded in 1903. The Minster School had a strong focus on music and, of the 180 pupils, 40 were choristers at York Minster. Buildings used by the school have been awarded listed status, among them the school house built 1830–1833, two houses dating back to 1837, and a Georgian building of 1755. The school buildings were used to depict the House of Lords in the 201 ...
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Salisbury Cathedral Choir
The Choir of Salisbury Cathedral exists to sing services in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, England, and has probably been in existence since the consecration of the cathedral in 1258. The choir comprises twenty boy choristers and twenty girl choristers aged from 8 to 13 years and six professional Lay Vicars singing countertenor, tenor and bass. Salisbury Cathedral was the first English cathedral to recruit girl choristers (in 1991) and, when in the cathedral, the girls' choir is usually wholly independent of the boys'. The weekly services are equally divided between the boy and girl choristers throughout the school year. The choristers are educated at Salisbury Cathedral School, which is situated in the Cathedral Close. The Lay Vicars live locally. In addition to services, the choir is involved in BBC broadcasts, concerts, CD recordings and the annual Southern Cathedrals Festival. The choir also broadcasts frequently on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. A documentary programme abo ...
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Royal Academy Of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of Wellington. Famous academy alumni include Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Elton John and Annie Lennox. The academy provides undergraduate and postgraduate training across instrumental performance, composition, jazz, musical theatre and opera, and recruits musicians from around the world, with a student community representing more than 50 nationalities. It is committed to lifelong learning, from Junior Academy, which trains musicians up to the age of 18, through Open Academy community music projects, to performances and educational events for all ages. The academy's museum houses one of the world's most significant collections of musical instruments and artefacts, including stringed instruments by Stradivari, Guarneri, an ...
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David Titterington
David Titterington is a British organist, educator and artistic director. Early life and education David Titterington was born on 10 January 1958, the son of Geoffrey Bridge Titterington and Claire Elizabeth Titterington (née Parsons). He studied piano, violin and viola in the Junior Department of the Northern School of Music with John Foster, Anne Brindley and Ida Carroll. He went on to study organ with William Morgan and Derrick Cantrell of Manchester Cathedral. For many of his school years he played viola in the Lancashire Schools Symphony Orchestra and chamber ensembles. He was an organ scholar at Pembroke College, Oxford (BA Hons 1980, MA 1984), and at the Conservatoire de Rueil-Malmaison, Paris with Susan Landale and Marie-Claire Alain, where he was awarded a Premier Prix (à l’unanimité avec les felicitations du jury) in 1984 and Prix d'Excellence in 1985. Career Titterington has been professor of organ at London's Royal Academy of Music since 1991, where he has ...
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Gillian Weir
Dame Gillian Constance Weir (born 17 January 1941) is a New Zealand-British organist. Biography Weir was born in Martinborough, New Zealand, on 17 January 1941. Her parents were Clarice Mildred Foy ( Bignell) and Cecil Alexander Weir. She received her schooling at Queen's Park School, Wanganui Intermediate, and Wanganui Girls' College. When she was 19, she was a co-winner of the Auckland Star Piano Competition, playing Mozart. A year later she won a scholarship of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in London. There, she studied with the concert pianist Cyril Smith and the renowned organist Ralph Downes, and in her second year (1964) won the prestigious St. Albans International Organ Competition. Weir made her début at the Royal Albert Hall while still a student, as soloist in the Poulenc Organ Concerto, on the opening night of the 1965 season of the Promenade Concerts, and in the same year at the Royal Festival Hall in recital, then the youngest organist to ...
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David Sanger (organist)
David John Sanger (17 April 1947 – 28 May 2010) was a concert organist, professor and president of the Royal College of Organists. Biography Sanger was educated at Eltham College and the Royal Academy of Music. His teachers included Susi Jeans, Marie-Claire Alain and Anton Heiller. His career as a performer was launched when he won first prize in two international competitions: St Albans, England in 1969 and Kiel, Germany in 1972. After this, he toured as a solo recitalist. His discography spans the music of several centuries, and includes the complete organ works of Franck, the complete organ symphonies of Louis Vierne, and works by Liszt and Lefébure-Wély. He also recorded the complete organ music of Bach for Meridian Records. He toured many countries as recitalist – Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, France, Russia, Iceland, the United States, Mexico and South Korea – as well as giving many recitals in the B ...
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