More About Gordon

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 the Royal College of Organists, the Guild of Church Musicians and the Royal School of Church Music, and an honorary doctorate by the University of Huddersfield.

Gordon is also well-known as a teacher. 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 where he teaches organ scholars at, among others, King's College, St John's College and Jesus College. 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 Australia