As a performing organist and pedagogue, I am dedicated to cherishing the organ art in its variety, its historical context, and as a crucial part of our time. The organ is a melting pot for inventions and innovations, which have been growing already for over 2000 years. Therefore, I constantly collaborate with composers and premiere new works on historical and modern organs in inspiring concert programs, combining the experience of exciting new sounds with the compelling music of older periods.
Concert Broadcast on Deutschlandfunk
Deutschlandfunk aired my concert from this past February on June 16th, which also included an interview with me in German. The program featured an incredible lineup of works by Joachim Schneider, Jukka Tiensuu, Moritz Eggert, Lotta Wennäkoski, Ere Lievonen, and Veli Kujala. Also some Bach as an encore.
You can catch the broadcast and the interview for the next week here. I hope you’ll tune in and enjoy the music and conversation with Klaus Gehrke as much as I did!
World premiere of Whittall’s Joy in YLE Areena
It was a great joy to premiere a new symphony for organ and orchestra on the great organ at Helsinki Musiikkitalo as a soloist of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon.
Watch Matthew Whittall’s Joy here.
Great Success @ Auditorio Nacional de Madrid
My organ recital at the sold out grand hall of the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid on October 28th was a great success. The audience appreciated the program a lot and it was a pleasure to meet the Spanish composer José Luis Turina, this year’s composer-in-residence of the Auditorio. The audience was as enthusiastic about the contemporary music (including Cyclone (2006) by Veli Kujala) as about J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G- Major BWV 550 at the beginning of the concert and Max Reger’s Phantasy and Fugue on the name B-A-C-H op. 46 at the grande finale. This memorable concert ended with the second movement of Bach’s Sonata in E Minor as en encore on this beautiful Grenzing Organ.
