|
Richard Townend
 Richard Townend is the resident recitalist at St. Margaret Lothbury where he has presented over one thousand programmes on the renowned 1801 George Pike England organ, once played by Mendelssohn. A Colles Prize winner at the Royal College of Music in London, where he was a pupil of Harold Drake, Frederick Sternfeld and Herbert Howells, he continued his studies in Switzerland with Lionel Rogg and Guy Bovet.
Richard Townend travels all over Europe giving recitals and has had the pleasure of playing on some of the finest organs in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden. He has recorded historic organs for BBC radio and television, Belgian radio, EMI and the USA.
As a specialist in the music of the Renaissance and Baroque he is proud that in 1975 he became the first English organist to be invited to play in the International Organ Festival in Sion, Switzerland, performing on the oldest playable organ in the world in the Cathederal de Valère.
Well known for his lecture-recital series in England Richard Townend has also been a visiting lecturer at the Fachakademie fur Evangelkische Kirchenmusik in Bayreuth, Germany, and the International Organ Academy at St. Vith in Belgium, and is now a director of the Anglo-American British Organ Seminar.
|
|
The 1801 George Pike England Organ
 When Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt the church of St. Margaret in Lothbury after the Great Fire of London the church boasted no organ. The first organ of which we have any record was completed on Easter Day 1801 by George Pike England and it is the pipe work of this organ, standing in its original case, which forms the basis of the 1984 restoration of the organ by John Budgen. The firm, full sound with rich and colourful overtones comes from pipes that have an articulation and clarity of speech that have led many renowned organ experts to call this organ one of the finest classical organs in Great Britain. The specification of the restored organ is as follows:
|
