21 Jul 2011
Gordon looks at the situation for training organists when tuition fees are increased.
| 27/02/2012 | Huddersfield Town Hall 1pm Gordon's programme includes Sowerby's Pageant, Franck's Fantasie in A and Vierne's Impromptu. Ending the concert is the first Huddersfield performance of local composer Ian Hunt's Toccata Giocosa[ More ] |
| 12/03/2012 | Huddersfield Town Hall 1pm Gordon's programme opens with Guilmant's Grand Choeur in D and includes Mozart's Fantasia K608 and Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm[ More ] |
| 26/03/2012 | Huddersfield Town Hall 1pm A Jubilee Concert. Gordon's concert includes Elgar's Coronation March, Best's Variations on God Save the Queen and Eric Coates' Princess Elizabeth March[ More ] |
welcome
Gordon Stewart is one of the UK’s most popular and adaptable organists; he has played Celebrity Concerts in such places as St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, the Laurenskerk, Alkmaar and at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, Leeds Town Hall, Melbourne Town Hall, Pietermaritzburg City Hall, Johannesburg Cathedral and the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. His large repertoire means he can design concerts suitable for most organs and audiences. Playing regularly on the 1860 Father Willis organ at Huddersfield Town Hall, where he has been resident organist for 20 years, he has built a large and enthusiastic following.
Gordon tours abroad most years; this year he will be in Sweden and South Africa in August and September.
Gordon has recorded several CDs recently, and those of the organs of the Caird Hall, Dundee, Huddersfield Town Hall, Pietermaritzburg City Hall, Johannesburg Cathedral, and Pontefract Parish Church are available from this site. Recording plans for later this year include Magnificat settings for organ from Clifton Cathedral, Bristol and Huddersfield by request from Huddersfield Town Hall.
Gordon was for 15 years one of the regular conductors of BBC television's long-running series Songs of Praise, and he has been musical director for broadcasts on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4. His programme from the Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and in the United States.
Gordon was born in Dundee, Scotland, and studied in Manchester and Geneva. His teachers included Eric Chadwick, Gillian Weir and Lionel Rogg. He was awarded a Performer’s Diploma with distinction in Manchester and a Premier Prix de Virtuosité in Geneva. For fifteen years he was a cathedral organist, first in Manchester then in Blackburn. In recent years he has been awarded honorary fellowships by both the Royal College of Organists and the Royal School of Church Music, and an honorary doctorate by the University of Huddersfield.
Gordon is also well-known as a teacher, having been on the staff of both the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School for many years, and former students have held positions at St Paul’s Cathedral London, Westminster Abbey, Wells Cathedral, St Mary’s Cathedral Edinburgh and Coventry Cathedral. He is now one of the visiting organ tutors at Cambridge University. He has led master-classes for colleges and universities throughout the UK and in the USA, South Africa and the Netherlands.
“Gordon Stewart is a marvellously engaging performer. He almost literally runs onto the stage, and before he plays a note transmits a sense of energy, fun and anticipation. This touch of showbiz and the scattering about of funny stories prepares you to fully enjoy yourself. Gordon’s ‘show’ is very visual, but nothing of this style of delivery detracts from the seriously good musicianship of his performance. On the contrary, it energises and places in the mainstream an instrument which, certainly in the eyes of the young and the unchurched, can seem stuffy and dull……Gordon Stewart is a vibrant and accomplished player, at one with his instrument and his audience, whom he delighted from beginning to end.” Organ Australian December 2008