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WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHOIR
Directions The Choir will sing: works of Britten, Byrd, Purcell, Francis Grier and Philip Moore. Organ music of Bach and Walton will be featured. Music composed especially for coronations at the Abbey by Byrd, Walton and Howells will also be heard.
The singing of Services has been at the centre of the life of Westminster Abbey throughout its history and this is now maintained by a highly trained choir of mens and boys voices. The Choir is at the forefront of the national shrine - to provide excellence in the worship of God and to attract people of many nations to Christian faith and life. The Choir School is unique in being the only dedicated choir school in England. JAMES O’DONNELL is Organist and Master of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey and is today one of the leading British musicians of his generation. He was organ scholar of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied the organ with Peter Hurford, Nicolas Kynaston and David Sanger. He was appointed Master of Music at the age of 26. Under his twelve-year leadership the Choir of Westminster Cathedral won much praise and several awards for its many recordings, notably the Gramophone ‘Record of the Year’ and ‘Best Choral recording’ awards (1998) for a Hyperion recording of Masses by Frank Martin and Ildebrando Pizzetti. In January 2000, James O’Donnell was appointed to Westminster Abbey, where he is responsible for the direction of the music at the daily choral services and state occasions for which the Abbey is renowned, as well as directing the Abbey Choir in its extensive programme of concerts, tours, broadcasts and recordings. The choir has recently toured the Far East, Denmark, Germany, and Spain. James O’Donnell is internationally known as an organist, having appeared in concert all over the world. He has appeared at the Proms and in many other festivals both at home and abroad and has worked with some of the country’s leading orchestras and ensembles. In October 2003 he gave the opening concert in the Royal Festival Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of the organ. ROBERT QUINNEY enjoys a growing reputation as a brilliant exponent of the organ repertoire, in particular the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to his solo performances, he is frequently heard as an ensemble player and conductor. All three activities are combined in the post of Sub-Organist at Westminster Abbey. Robert Quinney studied at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar from 1995-1998. After graduating, he spent a further year in Cambridge, preparing a thesis that traces contrasting strands of Bach reception through the 18th and 19th centuries, toward the polar opposites of 20th century modernism, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. Quinney also produced an exhaustive survey of Bach’s Church Cantatas in preparation for Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, in which he was also a performer. Having earned the M.Phil degree for his work on Bach, Quinney left Cambridge, spending a year as Acting Sub-Organist at Westminster-Abbey. He moved to Westminster Cathedral in September, 2000 as Assistant Master of Music where – in addition to daily work with the Westminster Cathedral Choir – he organized and gave many of the Cathedral’s organ recitals, including a performance in 2001 of Francis Pott’s monumental organ symphony, Christus. Shortly before returning to Westminster Abbey in September, 2004, he made two recordings on the Grand Organ of Westminster Cathedral, due for release soon on the Signum label. As a solo performer, Quinney’s profile has increased steadily since winning the Royal College of Organists Performer of the Year competition in 2002. |
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