Music in Bloomsbury with Organists Online

Organ Day 2024
2.30 - 3.00 pm

Recital 2
Laurence John

Assistant Director of Music, St David's Cathedral, Wales

Programme to be announced

Laurence John is the assistant director of music at St Davids Cathedral. He has previously held organ scholarships at Hereford and Exeter Cathedrals, and The Queen’s College, Oxford.

During his undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford, Laurence was organ scholar at The Queen’s College. He accompanied the chapel choir, described by Classic FM as ‘one of the world’s most renowned choirs’, for weekly services as well as concerts, tours, recordings, and two BBC Radio 3 broadcasts. Beyond the college, Laurence played for the choir at Westminster Abbey, HM Chapel Royal St James’s Palace and on a tour to America, where he accompanied services and concerts in many major cathedrals and churches, including Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.

He has worked as an organist, pianist, and harpsichordist with a number of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Academy of Ancient Music, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Instruments of Time and Truth. Whilst a student at Hereford Cathedral School, Laurence accompanied the internationally acclaimed Cantabile Girls’ Choir and played for winning performances by the choir in the final of Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year competition and at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen; broadcast on BBC One and S4C respectively.

Programme notes from HERE

Processional
William Mathias (1932 - 1992)

A Sad Pavane for these Distracted Times
Thomas Tomkins (1572 - 1656)

Three Preludes Founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958)
i: Bryn Calfaria Ii: Rhosymedre iii: Hyfrydol

Recessional
William Mathias

Click on the image to see a clip of Laurence playing.

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