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Details
St Denys' Church
St Denys Road
York
YO1 9QD
England
Programme
Johannes Brahms – O Gott, du frommer Gott, Op.122 no.7
Robert Schumann – 6 Pieces in Canonic Form, Op.56
Edmund Rubbra – Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Cyril Scott, Op.69
Bertie Baigent – A quiet pavan, with canons
Donnacha Dennehy – Work for Organ (1992)
Performers
Robert Smith – organ
Programme Note
Robert Smith is currently the Assistant Director of Music of the York Oratory (St. Wilfrid's Church). In 2014/2015 he served as the Assistant Organist at St. Paul's Bloor Street, the largest Anglican church in Toronto, where he regularly accompanied the church choir. Previously the organ scholar of Somerville College, Oxford, he accompanied and occasionally directed the choir of that college for their regular services and concerts.
He began musical life aged 5 on the piano, then took up the organ aged 13 and received lessons from Henry Fairs at the Birmingham Conservatoire for five years. Upon reaching Oxford Robert was taught by Stephen Farr and William Whitehead, as well as achieving his ARCO diploma, for which he also won the Sowerbutts Prize and Durrant Prize.
He has had the pleasure of participating in numerous choir concerts and tours, notably at Blackburn Cathedral, Lancaster Priory, Birmingham Cathedral, Ampleforth Abbey, Coventry Cathedral and three times at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Robert regularly performs recitals as well as participating in masterclasses led by David Goode, Guy Bovet and Thomas Trotter. He collaborated with conductor Nicholas Cleobury for a concert recorded by the BBC.
Summer 2014 saw Robert take part in a choir tour of America and this has been followed by five recital tours of Germany, across Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria. His first commercial solo CD The Franz Liszt Memorial Organ in Weimar was released by the German record label JUBAL in April 2015.
