Whilst most visitors to this site will know me as a composer, conductor and former percussionist, it is less known that my earliest profession was as an organist.
I started playing the organ at the age of eleven, became an ARCO (Associate of the Royal College of Organists) at fifteen, and a FRCO (Fellow of the same institution) at eighteen.
Whilst studying composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (1971-72) I played regularly at the Église St. Georges - then the English Church in Paris -
where Susan Landale was organist and Edward Higginbottom ran the choir). Having already won an organ scholarship to Cambridge University the year before,
I then became organ scholar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge from 1972-1975. For the next two years I was organist of St John's, Hyde Park Crescent in Paddington, London.
This was the point at which I made the decision to put aside organ playing and concentrate on my other musical passions - composition, percussion and conducting.
Almost fifty years later, thanks not only to the discovery of a wonderful organ in the beautiful nearby Marienkirche in Dahme/Mark but also to the encouragement
and enthusiasm from several local church communities, I decided to resume my earlier profession. After twelve to eighteen months'concentrated work I began to regain my
former technique. Since the summer of 2024 I have played regularly for the Gottesdienste in the Marienkirche in Dahme, and from 2025 I started once again giving organ recitals.
The organ in Dahme is a two-manual, baroque-style organ built by Alexander Schuke. It is perfect for baroque music, especially Bach, and so my organ recitals there focus largely
on Bach and other baroque repertoire. In my youth I regularly played all the works of Messiaen that had so far been written (at that time Messiaen was still organist at the
St. Trinité in Paris), as well as other twentieth-century repertoire.
This Christmas (2025) I will have the honour to play Messiaen's complete
organ cycle "La nativité du Seigneur" on the magnificent Cavaillé-Coll style organ built in 2013-16 by Orgelbau Karl Schuke in the Pauluskirche, Berlin-Zehlendorf.
More recitals are to be planned in the coming years, and on this page you can find details of the dates, places and programmes.
Freitag 26.Dezember 2025 | 18 Uhr
PAULUSKIRCHE, BERLIN ZEHLENDORF Kirchstraße 6, 14169 Berlin
Olivier Messiaen La nativité du Seigneur
Samstag 20.September 2025 | 16 Uhr
KIRCHE ST. MARIEN, DAHME Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6, 15936 Dahme/Mark
J.S. Bach Praeludium et Fuga a-Moll (BWV 543)
J.S. Bach Erbarm' dich mein, O Herre Gott (BWV 721)
Helft mir Gottes Güte preisen (BWV 613)
J.S. Bach
Praeludium et Fuga e-Moll
Felix Mendelssohn
3.Orgelsonate A-Dur (Op. 65)
Jehan Alain
Aria
Deux danses à Agni Yavishta
Le jardin suspendu
Litanies
Samstag 10.Mai 2025 | 17 Uhr
KIRCHE ST. MARIEN, Dahme Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 6, 15936 Dahme/Mark
J.S. Bach Fantasia et Fuga g-Moll (BWV 542)
J.S. Bach Adagio aus Toccata, Adagio et Fuga C-Dur (BWV 564)
Felix Mendelssohn
1.Orgelsonate f-Moll (Op. 65)
Louis Couperin
Allemande g-Moll
Chacone c-Moll
Chacone g-Moll
