ST JOHN’S COLLEGE ORGAN RECITAL SERIES Lent Term 2024
SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 18:00 Tingshuo Yang - Junior Organ Scholar St John’s College
J S Bach In dulci jubilo (BWV 729) J S Bach In dulci jubilo (BWV 608) J S Bach Von Himmel kam der Engel schar (BWV 607) Langlais Suite Medievale i. Prelude ii. Tiento iii. Improvisation iv. Meditation v. Acclamations
SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY 18:00 Mark Williams Magdalen College, Oxford
J S Bach Prelude & Fugue in A minor (BVW 543) Vierne Impromptu from Pièces de Fantaisie, (Op. 54) Wagner arr. LeMare Pilgrim’s Chorus from Tannhäuser Byrd Fantasia in C major Farrington Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir
SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 18:00 Katelyn Emerson Gonville & Caius College Alcock Introduction and Passacaglia Langlais Trio (Triptyque) Bairstow Evening Song
SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY 18:00 Jeffrey Makinson Lincoln Cathedral
J S Bach ‘Dorian’ Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 538) Litaize Scherzo (Douze Pièces) Elgar Allegro maestoso (Organ Sonata in G major)
SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 18:00 Christopher Gray - Director of Music St John’s College
Buxtehude Praeludium in A minor (BuxWV153) MacMillan Wedding Introit Howells Psalm Prelude set 2, no.1 ‘De profundis’ J S Bach Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (BWV 731) J S Bach Fuga sopra il Magnificat (BWV 733)
SUNDAY 3 MARCH 18:00 Alex Robson - Herbert Howells Organ Scholar St John’s College
Alain Deuxième Fantaisie J S Bach Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (BWV 686) Demessieux Attende, Domine Dupré Prelude and Fugue in G minor (Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité)
SUNDAY 10 MARCH 18:00 Professor Iain Quinn Florida State University
Tournemire Pater, dimite illis nasciunt enim quid faciunt (Sept Chorals-Poems) Quinn Continuum (Notre Dame) J S Bach Prelude and Fugue in C minor (BWV 546)
A full specification of the Mander Organ is available online.
Tingshuo Yang is the Junior Organ Scholar at St John’s College, where he studies Music in his first year. He has shown insatiable curiosity for music since his childhood, having his first piano lesson aged four. He studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department from 2012 until 2016, attaining his DipABSRM aged 10 and LRSM two years later. He also studied at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg with Professor Jean Muller and was the winner of annual award of “Prix du meilleur laureat” in 2019. In April that year, Tingshuo made his solo debut with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2018, Tingshuo was awarded a music scholarship to Eton College, where he studied organ with Philip Scriven and played regularly for the Lower and College Chapel Choirs. While at Eton, he attained his ARCO and in 2020, came runner up in the under-25s category of Composition Competition of the Royal College of Organists. In August 2023, he was highly commended in the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition and worked with David Hill as the organ scholar of the Charles Wood Festival in Armagh. Mark Williams has been Informator Choristarum, Organist and Tutorial Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford since January 2017. Under his leadership, the Choir introduced the first female Academical Clerks in its history and, for five years, Mark oversaw a project to replace the Chapel’s organ with a new four-manual instrument by Hermann Eule Orgelbau, which was unveiled to wide acclaim in January 2023. Mark studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was for six years Assistant Organist of St Paul’s Cathedral and Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral School. Between 2009 and 2016, he held the post of Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge. He has appeared as organist, harpsichordist and conductor internationally and on disc with many of the UK’s leading ensembles, and given solo recitals, judged competitions and led masterclasses in choral training, singing and organ performance in the UK, the USA, Asia and Africa. A trustee of a number of musical charities, he is also the Artistic Director of the William Byrd Festival which takes place annual in Portland, Oregon, USA. He has appeared as a broadcaster on the BBC and visiting speaker and lecturer in the UK and Europe. He has worked with pop groups, crossover artists and appeared as conductor and organist on major Hollywood film scores, and he has acted as musical consultant for various television programmes, including the ITV crime drama, Endeavour.
Having ‘taken the organ world by storm’ (The Diapason), Katelyn Emerson maintains a busy international concertizing and teaching schedule, presenting concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia that showcase repertoire spanning the 14th—21st centuries alongside masterclasses and lectures on organ interpretation, healthy practice techniques, and sacred music. Katelyn is laureate of international organ competitions on three continents, including the American Guild of Organists’ (AGO) National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance, Musashino International Organ Competition (Japan), International Organ Competition “Pierre de Manchicourt” (France), and Mikael Tariverdiev International Organ Competition (Russia). Recipient of a 1+3 ESRC/UKRI Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship for her PhD studies at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Music and Science, Katelyn is based in both the USA and the UK. She holds further degrees from the Musikhochschule Stuttgart (MA Organ; Germany), supported by a German Academic Exchange Scholarship (DAAD), Oberlin College and Conservatory (BMus Organ, BA French; USA), and Colorado State University (Certificate in Occupational Ergonomics; USA). She additionally studied en perfectionnement at the Conservatoire de Toulouse (France) through a William Fulbright Study/Research Grant. Katelyn has two CD recordings on the Pro Organo label. For information and recordings, please visit: www.katelynemerson.com. Jeffrey Makinson is Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Lincoln Cathedral. He is also an accredited teacher for the Royal College of Organists Academy and Music Director of Beverley Chamber Choir. Born in Manchester in 1970, Jeffrey received his musical training at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Manchester University. He subsequently became Organ Scholar at York Minster for two years before spending five years as Assistant Organist at Lincoln Cathedral. He moved to Manchester Cathedral as Sub-Organist in 1999. During his time in Manchester he was Tutor of Organ at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Manchester University and Tutor in Piano at Chetham’s School of Music.
Jeffrey returned to Lincoln in January 2015. As part of his duties at the Cathedral, Jeffrey accompanies the cathedral choir for most of the choral services and concerts and directs the girl choristers. Alongside his work in Lincoln, he maintains a busy schedule as a recitalist, accompanist, conductor, teacher and adjudicator in the city and across the country. As an organist, Jeffrey has performed across Europe and North America. In the United Kingdom, he has given concerts at most of the major cathedrals, abbeys, collegiate chapels, churches and concert halls, including numerous recitals at Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral and King’s College, Cambridge.Jeffrey is an examiner for the Royal College of Organists. He has also taught on numerous ‘Royal College of Organists’ and ‘Oundle for Organists’ courses. Jeffrey works extensively for the BBC, as regular musical director and organist for Radio 4 Daily Service. In addition, he has worked on television and radio shows such as Songs of Praise, Chorister of the Year, Choral Evensong, Minstrels in the Gallery, Young Musician of the Year, Sunday Morning Worship, and the Radio 4 Pilgrimage to Rome. He has made numerous CD recordings, with the Albany, Delphian, Herald, Lammas, Naxos, Priory and Regent labels. For many years he was Organist in Residence at the Exon Singers Summer Festival, held in Devon. Jeffrey has a keen interest in new music and has given first performances of works by numerous leading composers, including Michael Berkeley, Judith Bingham, Mark Blatchly, James Burton, Martin Bussey, Bob Chilcott, Naji Hakim, Robin Holloway, Grayston Ives, Francis Jackson, George Lloyd, Richard Lloyd, Matthew Martin, Philip Moore, Howard Skempton and Philip Wilby. As an orchestral musician, he has worked alongside some of the country’s leading ensembles, including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Projects this year include a solo recording on the Father Willis organ of Lincoln Cathedral for online platform ‘Beauty in Sound’ and a collaboration with electronic music producer Floating Points and the Los Angeles Concert Orchestra, culminating in a performance of their award-winning album Promises at the Hollywood Bowl.
Christopher Gray has been Director of Music at St John’s College since April 2023. With responsibilities focusing on the College’s celebrated choir and organ, he works with the Choristers, Choral Scholars, Lay Clerks and Organ Scholars to provide music that enhances the liturgy of the beautiful Gilbert Scott chapel, upholding a tradition that dates from the 1670s. After early musical education in his hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland, Christopher became Assistant Organist at St George’s Parish Church, Belfast. At the age of 18 he moved to England to take up the organ scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read music. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Christopher studied the organ with David Sanger and Nicolas Kynaston at Cambridge. He was subsequently taught by Margaret Phillips at the Royal College of Music, where he was a post-graduate student and a prize-winner. During this time, he also held the organ scholarship at Guildford Cathedral. In 2000 Christopher was appointed Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral, working closely with Andrew Nethsingha and then Robert Sharpe. In 2008 he became Director of Music, taking on responsibility for the cathedral choir and its seven sung services each week, as well as the Father Willis organ. As Musical Director of Three Spires Singers and Orchestra he conducted most of the largescale choral repertoire. During his first three terms at St John’s Christopher has led a collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Advent Carol Service broadcast, and a tour to Luxembourg and the Netherlands, as well as premiering new works composed for the Choir by Joanna Marsh. In the coming months he will make his first recording with the Choir.
Alex Robson is the Herbert Howells Organ Scholar at St John’s College, where he studies Music in his second year. Alex found his love for music on the piano at age 6, and began organ lessons when he started secondary school. He received his ARCO diploma in 2019 and while still at school he played for the parish choir at St Paul’s, Rusthall for services, concerts and cathedral visits. He has also played the piano and clarinet in the Kent Youth Wind Orchestra and Kent Country Youth Orchestra. In 2021, Alex was Organ Scholar at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where he played regularly for the daily services and special events. Besides accompanying the choir, he enjoyed teaching the younger choristers in the mornings as girls were admitted for the first time, and conducting the Lay Clerks once a fortnight. Particular highlights of the year included recordings with the choir, the services in Holy Week including the Royal Maundy service, and the Garter Day service. Alex studies the organ with Ann Elise Smoot, and the piano with Marie-Noëlle Kendall. He has given recitals in Cambridge, London and Oxford, and looks forward to the tours and recordings with the College Choir. His other interests include cross-country running and learning foreign languages.
Iain Quinn was born in Cardiff. He grew up as a chorister at Llandaff Cathedral, also studying the organ, piano, and trumpet. At fourteen, he was appointed Organist at St. Michael’s Theological College, Llandaff. He later joined the faculty of the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music, London. In 1994 he moved to the USA for study at The Juilliard School, the University of Hartford (BM) and the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale University (MM), returning to the UK in 2009 as a Doctoral Fellow at the University of Durham (PhD historical musicology). He has released fifteen CDs on the Chandos, Guild, Hyperion, Naxos, Paulus, Raven, and Regent labels. His most recent recordings include Haydn Organ Concertos with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen (Chandos) and Organ Music of Vincent Persichetti (Naxos). He has completed critical editions of the previously unpublished organ works and early Christmas cantata of Samuel Barber (G. Schirmer), the complete organ works of Carl Czerny (2 volumes, A-R Editions), the complete anthems of John Goss (A-R Editions), and two volumes volume of the Elgar Complete Edition. He is the editor of an ongoing series of English Organ Sonatas (Ut Orpheus Edizioni) and the author of four books: The Genesis and Development of an English Sonata (Routledge – Royal Musical Association Monograph Series); The Organist in Victorian Literature (Palgrave Macmillan); Music and Religion in the writings of Ian McEwan (Boydell and Brewer); Rudolph Ganz, Patriotism and Standardization of The Star-Spangled Banner, 1907 – 1958 (Routledge). Dr Quinn is Professor of Organ at Florida State University.
ORGAN SCHOLARS AT ST JOHN’S COLLEGE There are two Organ Scholars who assist the Director of Music in the running of the Choir. They accompany the Choir in its daily round of services and assist in the training of its Choristers at St John’s College School. Most former Organ Scholars have gone on to pursue high profile musical careers - Stephen Cleobury, John Scott, David Hill, Andrew Lumsden, Adrian Lucas, Andrew Nethsingha and Iain Farrington were all Organ Scholars at St John’s. A list of former Organ Scholars is below. The College encourages the performance of new repertoire and there is a fund available for the purchase of organ music. The College’s commitment to new music means that Organ Scholars have the opportunity to give first performances of new works by leading composers. The College pays for organ and improvisation lessons and substantial performance fees are paid for the many ‘extra’ services and concerts which are undertaken by the Choir. Organ Scholars also benefit from playing continuo with professional orchestras and ensembles. Funds are also available to support Organ Scholars working towards their ARCO and FRCO examinations. Our next vacancy is in 2025, which can be applied for in either the 2023 or 2024 Organ Trials. Find out more about the application process online. 1947 - James Brown
1981 - Andrew Lumsden
2004 - Paul Provost
1947 - George Guest
1983 - James Cryer
2005 - Léon Charles
1951 - James Bennett
1984 - Philip Kenyon
2007 - Timothy Ravalde
1952 - Andrew Lumsden
1985 - Robert Huw Morgan
2008 - John Challenger
(Assistant organist)
1987 - Andrew Nethsingha
2010 - Freddie James
1953 - Alan Hemmings
1988 - Alexander Martin
2012 - Edward Picton-Turbervill
1956 - Peter White
1990 - Philip Scriven
2013 - Joseph Wicks
1960 - Brian Runnett
1991 - James Martin
2015 - Glen Dempsey
1963 - Jonathan Bielby
1993 - Allan Walker
2017 - James Anderson-Besant
1967 - Stephen Cleobury
1994 - Peter Davis
2019 - George Herbert
1971 - Jonathan Rennert
1996 - Iain Farrington
2021 - Alex Trigg
1974 - John Scott
1997 - Robert Houssart
2022 - Alex Robson
1976 - David Hill
1999 - Christopher Whitton
2023 - Tingshuo Yang
1978 - Ian Shaw
2000 - Jonathan Vaughn
1980 - Adrian Lucas
2002 - John Robinson