Sunday 15th November 2015 @ 4.15 pm
St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh
Organ Recital

The current organ recital series in St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh will continue on Sunday 15 November 2015 at 4.15pm, when the recitalist will be Raymond Russell.

Raymond started organ lessons at St Ann’s Church, Dublin, with William Watson
and was appointed to his first church organ position at the age of sixteen.
While reading Physics at Trinity College, Dublin he was appointed Organ Scholar, with responsibility for directing the Chapel Choir.

He has held a number of church music posts in Drogheda and Dublin. He resumed his organ studies with Anne Marsden Thomas in 1997, subsequently gaining the ARCO diploma. Since then he has attended many courses and master classes in France, Switzerland, Germany and England and currently studies with Gerdi Troskie in Worcester. Raymond is a former Deputy Principal of a secondary school and is currently Director of Music at Monkstown Parish Church, which has a strong musical tradition in south County Dublin. He has inaugurated a very successful annual lunchtime series of organ recitals in May after a major restoration of the three manual organ.

Raymond explains his interest in the organ, “I was always attracted to the organ sound, listening to Ralph Downes playing Bach organ works on the radio, and to my local church organ when I was in the junior choir. I wished to learn the organ first but was persuaded to learn to play the piano instead, which I did to Grade 6, and then began organ lessons when I joined St Ann’s choir in Dublin. There I developed a real love for liturgical music and the organ repertoire. At Trinity College I continued my organ studies with David Leigh and was appointed organ scholar in my final year.”

With reference to the recital programme for Armagh, Raymond says, “ I have chosen a variety of styles of organ pieces from across the centuries and the audience will hear some of the rich musical organ culture of Germany, France and England. The organ is not heard frequently enough nowadays and so I am passionate about making known the musical value of the wide repertoire of the organ to more listeners.”

The Very Revd Gregory Dunstan, Dean of Armagh, says, “Raymond promises us a programme of Bach, Mendelssohn, Vierne and Bridge. We look forward to welcoming another organist from Dublin to be part of our recital series, and hope that he, like so many of our other visitors, will enjoy playing the Cathedral organ.”

As with all the recitals in this series, admission is free, with a retiring collection towards the further endowment of the Cathedral Choir through the Archbishop’s Choir Fund.

For further information, please contact: St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh: Tel. 028 37523142