Internationally renowned organist and scholar John Butt will perform a selection of music by some of the most outstanding composers for the organ at the University of Aberdeen next week.
A former lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, John is an active performer who directs several choirs in Cambridge and Berkeley and appears as a solo organist, harpsichordist and director in Britain, the United States and Europe.
He will perform a special Organ Recital on Tuesday, March 8, playing the two early English organs that are currently in residence in King’s College Chapel as part of the Early English Organ Project, as well as performing repertoire on the new Aubertin organ.
The concert programme includes music by De Grigny, Frescobaldi and J.S. Bach, and will be held in the University Chapel of King’s College, Old Aberdeen, at 7.45pm.
The visit by John Butt is one of the highlights of the Early English Organ Project, which welcomed the two unique reconstructed 16th century English organs to the Chapel in January this year. The residency continues with a packed programme of events until April 2005.
Dr David J. Smith, Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Aberdeen, is leading the Early English Organ Project. He said: “This will be a tremendous opportunity to hear repertoire performed on the early organs alongside pieces played on the much bigger Aubertin.
"The early organs are like the one that we know was in King’s Chapel five hundred years ago, whereas the Aubertin is very much an instrument for the 21st century.
“It will be great to hear sounds from 500 years ago alongside the work of modern organ builder. John Butt is one of the finest organists of his generation, and a specialist in the music of Bach.”
As an undergraduate at Cambridge University, John Butt held the office of organ scholar at King’s College. In 1997, he returned to Cambridge as a University Lecturer and Fellow of King’s College, and in October 2001 he became the Gardiner Chair of Music and Head of the Department of Music at the University of Glasgow.
Further information on the Organ Recital by John Butt on Tuesday, March 8, is available by contacting University Music on (01224) 272571, or email: music@abdn.ac.uk. Admission to the event is free.
* The Early English Organ Project residency activities continue every weekend until April and will culminate with a Festival of Organs and Virginals – a major international event including recitals and a ‘Symposium of Early English Keyboards’, which will celebrate the end of the organs’ reign at the University. Further information is available at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/music/organpages/seek.shtml