Music of Liszt, Franck, Schumann, Stanford, and Reubke
Part of the 2010-2011 Great Organ Music at Yale Series
Woolsey Hall
500 College Street, New Haven
The 2010 – 2011 season of Great Organ Music at Yale will continue on Sunday, November 14 with a recital by James O’Donnell at 8pm in Woolsey Hall in New Haven. The first half of the program includes works of Liszt, Franck, Schumann, and Stanford, while the second half is devoted to Reubke’s Sonata on the 94th Psalm, considered one of the pinnacles of the Romantic repertoire. The 94th Psalm sonata is a symphonic poem, where text of the psalm is used to inspire the mood of the piece.
James O’Donnell is Organist and Master of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey and enjoys a distinguished career as a conductor and recitalist. He was a junior exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music and then organ scholar of Jesus College, Cambridge. He spent five years as Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral before being appointed Master of Music at the age of twenty-six. Under his twelve-year leadership, Westminster Cathedral Choir consolidated its considerable reputation and won several accolades for its recordings, notably the prestigious Gramophone ‘Record of the Year’ award in 1998.
In January 2000, James O’Donnell was appointed Organist of Westminster Abbey, where he is responsible for the direction of the music at the daily choral services as well as the great state occasions for which the Abbey is renowned. He also conducts The Choir of Westminster Abbey in its extensive programme of concerts, broadcasts, recordings and tours, including visits in recent years to Australia, the United States, the Far East, Denmark, Germany, and Spain.
He has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles and in 2004 was appointed Associate Music Director of St. James’s Baroque. He is also much in demand as an organist, having appeared in concert in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, throughout Europe, and at the Royal Festival Hall and the BBC Proms. He is Visiting Professor of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music and received Honorary Membership of the Academy in 2002.
The New Haven recital, presented by Yale Institute of Sacred Music, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.