Members of the 2009 Competitions Jury.

James David Christie

James David Christie studied at the Oberlin and New England Conservatories of Music. He studied organ with Byron Blackmore, David Boe, Marie-Claire Alain, Harald Vogel, Yuko Hayashi and Bernard Lagacé, and harpsichord with Fenner Douglass and Lisa Goode Crawford.

In 1979 he won both the First Prize and Audience Prize at the Bruges International Organ Competition. He has been a jury member for competitions in Dallas, Boston, Calgary and Worcester MA in the United States, as well as Dublin, Paris, Lausanne, St Omer-Wasquehal, Bruges, Leipzig, and Speyer; he has appeared as soloist with many major symphony orchestras, including Boston, San Francisco, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle, New York, London, Paris, Stuttgart and Koblenz. He has been a faculty member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Boston Conservatory and Boston University, and organist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1978. He has recorded on Philips, Koch, Decca, Dorian, JAV, Northeastern, GM, RCA, and Naxos labels.

Jon Laukvik

Jon Laukvik received his earliest music training as organist and pianist in his native town, Oslo. He went on to study organ and harpsichord in Cologne and Paris. In 1980 he became a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Stuttgart. Since 2001 he has also been a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He has toured throughout Europe, Japan, Korea, Israel and the United States. He is frequently in demand to serve on competition juries and to teach at seminars and masterclasses.

He is the author of the organ tutor Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing published by Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart. He has also edited the Handel Organ Concerti Op. 7 for Carus-Verlag (together with Werner Jacob). A complete edition of the organ works of Louis Vierne in 13 volumes, edited together
with David Sanger, was published by Carus in February 2008.

His compositions include works for solo organ, organ with other instruments, vocal and works for other
instruments.

Philippe Lefebvre

Philippe Lefebvre held the position of organist at the cathedral in Arras, whilst still a student at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was awarded first prizes in organ, improvisation, fugue and counterpoint.

He was prizewinner of the “Fondation de la Vocation”, and gained first prize at the Lyon International Improvisation Competition in 1972. He won the Grand Prix de Chartres for improvisation a year later at the Chartres International Organ Competition and was appointed organist at
this cathedral in 1976. In 1985 he was chosen (together with three other organists) to succeed Pierre Cochereau as organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, where, since 2003, he has been the Director of Sacred Music in charge of all musical activities.

For 23 years he was director of the Conservatoire in Lille, and under his leadership, this important school of music, theatre and dance provided professional instruction for 1700 French and foreign students. As a native of this region, he also devotes himself to the restoration of historic organs and the building of new instruments. For two years he has taught Improvisation at the Conservatoire National de Paris. He has given solo recitals around the world, and also with orchestra for many important music festivals, and has produced numerous recordings on the FY-RCA label, including the complete works of several French composers.

 

John Scott 

John Scott received his earliest musical training as a Chorister at Wakefield Cathedral, and gained the diplomas of the Royal College of Organists while still at school, winning the major prizes. He was Organ Scholar of St John’s College, Cambridge, where he studied with Dame Gillian Weir. On leaving Cambridge he became Assistant Organist at both St Paul’s and Southwark Cathedrals, later becoming Sub-Organist of St Paul’s, and then Organist and Director of Music there in 1990.

He won First Prize in the Manchester International Organ Competition (1978) and the Leipzig J.S. Bach Competition (1984). He has been a member of a number of international competition juries, including those in Manchester, Dublin, Chartres, Dallas and Erfurt as well as previously here in St Albans. Recent engagements have included concerts at Symphony Hall Birmingham, Notre Dame (Paris), the Aarhus Organ Festival in Denmark, Cologne Cathedral, Disney Hall (Los Angeles) and London’s Royal Albert Hall. In the summer of 2004, after a 26 year association with St Paul’s Cathedral, he took up the post of
Organist and Director of Music at St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York, where he directs the renowned choir of men and boys. He was awarded the LVO in the New Year’s Honours List of 2004.

Thomas Trotter

Thomas Trotter was appointed Birmingham City Organist in 1983 and was appointed
Artistic Advisor and Resident Organist at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in 2001. He is
also Organist at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey and visiting Professor of Organ at the Royal College of Music, London. In 2002 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumental award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to classical music. He received an honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University in 2003 and from Birmingham University in 2006. He has been a consultant to the IOF since 1991.

Alongside his weekly recitals in Birmingham, Thomas Trotter has toured throughout the USA, Europe, Australia and Japan, and has played at many International Festivals such as Bath, Salzburg, Edinburgh and the Proms. He regularly inaugurates new instruments both at home and abroad, and his recordings have
appeared on the Hyperion, Chandos, Regent, EMI and Decca labels. Several of his recordings have been named Gramophone magazine’s ‘Critics Choice’, and a Liszt recording won a Grand Prix du Disque in 1995.

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