Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York, Concert Royal & John Scott
Biography Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York, Concert Royal & John Scott
John Scott
was born in 1956 in Wakefield,Yorkshire, where he became a Cathedral chorister. While still at school he gained the diplomas of the Royal College of Organists and won the major prizes. In 1974 he be- came Organ Scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he acted as assistant to Dr. George Guest. His organ studies were with Jonathan Bielby, Ralph Downes, and Dame Gillian Weir. He made his debut in the 1977 Promenade Concerts in the Royal Albert Hall; he was the youngest organist to appear in the Proms.
On leaving Cambridge, he was appointed Assistant Organist at Lon- don’s two Anglican Cathedrals, St. Paul’s and Southwark. In 1985 he became Sub-Organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 1990 he succeeded Dr. Christopher Dearnley as Organist and Director of Music.
As an organist, John Scott has performed in five continents, premiered many new works written for him, and worked with various specialist ensembles. He is a first-prize winner from the Manchester International Organ Competition (1978) and the Leipzig J.S. Bach Com- petition (1984). In 1998 he was nominated International Performer of the Year by the New York Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He is a Past President of the Incorporated Association of Organists. He has been a member of a number of international competition juries, including those in Manchester, Dublin, Chartres, Dallas, St. Albans and Erfurt. Recent highlights of his career have included recitals in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Notre Dame in Paris, the Aarhus Organ Festival in Denmark, Cologne Cathedral, Disney Hall in Los Angeles and Lon- don’s Royal Albert Hall. In addition to his work as a conductor and organist, John Scott has published a number of choral compositions and arrangements and he has jointly edited two compilations of liturgical music for the Church’s year, published by Oxford University Press.
In 2004, after 26 years at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, John Scott moved to take up the post of Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York, where he directs the renowned Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. In 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin.
Saint Thomas Choir & Choir School
The Choir of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue is the leading ensemble in the Anglican choral tradition in the United States. Directed since 2004 by John Scott, formerly Organist and Director of Music at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Saint Thomas Choir performs regularly with period instrument ensembles, Concert Royal and Sinfonia New York, or with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s as part of its own concert series. Its primary raison d’être, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week.
Supplementing its choral services and concert series over the past three decades, the choir has toured throughout the United States and Europe with performances at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Kings College, Cambridge, Windsor, Edinburgh, St. Albans and the Aldeburgh Festival. In 2004, the choir toured Italy, and performed for a Papal Mass at the Vatican. During 2007, the choir performed Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion for the opening concert of the Mexico Festival in Mexico City as well as at Saint Thomas Church. More recent concerts have included Rachmaninoff Vespers; the U.S. premiere of John Tavener’s Mass; a concert of American composers featuring works by Bernstein and Copland as well as a composition by Saint Thomas chorister, Daniel Castellanos; the first modern performance of Richter’s Missa Hyemalis, a Henry Purcell anniversary concert; the world premiere of Scott Eyerly’s Spires; the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 and a concert of music by Benjamin Britten. In April 2010, the choir performed in their second British Choirs Festival at Washington National Cathedral with the choirs of New College Oxford and Washington National Cathedral.
The Men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers; the Boy choristers attend Saint Thomas Choir School. Founded in 1919, it is the only church related boarding choir school in the United States, and one of only a few choir schools remaining in the world. The Choir School offers a challenging pre-preparatory curriculum, interscholastic sports, and musical training for boys in grades three through eight. The Choir School is committed to training and educating talented musicians with- out regard to religious, economic, or social background. Choristers are sought from all regions of the country.
Concert Royal
one of the first original instrument ensembles in New York, was founded by Artistic Director James Richman, harpsichordist and leader in the early music field. Performing the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries exclusively on original instruments, Concert Royal presents a multifaceted approach to the period by programming all genres of music from orchestral, vocal, and chamber music to opera and opera-ballet. The ensemble has been in the forefront of the Baroque and Classic revival in the United States, with innovative performances of the major repertoire of the period featuring the foremost performers/scholars in the field. This work has included the first ongoing program of Baroque opera on original instruments with period costumes and staging, as well as premieres from the chamber music and chamber orchestra repertoire.
