Artist Biographies

Adam Baker began studying the organ while at the King's School in Canterbury, where he was an Academic and Music scholar. In his gap-year Adam was the organ scholar at Croydon Parish Church. During this time he also took the foundation-year organ course at the Royal Academy of Music. Presently, Adam is the Senior Organ Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studies History of Art, focusing on Early Mediaeval Art and the Architecture of Britain and Rome.

Jessica Cottis is a first-class honours graduate of the Australian National University, where she studied the organ, piano and musicology. Prizewinner in the 2000 Australian Young Performers' Competition, she appeared with orchestras across Australia and performed at London's Westminster Cathedral a year later. She continued her studies with Nicolas Kynaston and Susan Landale at the Royal Academy of Music on a postgraduate course, where she was recipient of the Whalley and E. Power Biggs Awards. She is Musical Director of The King's Opera and most recently conducted Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. In 2006 Jessica will join the Academy's postgraduate conducting course.

Martin Ford is currently Organ Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he is reading Music. Prior to this, he took a gap-year, during which he was the Organ Scholar at Southwark Cathedral and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Susan Landale and David Titterington. He currently studies with David Sanger. He has given numerous organ recitals, at venues including Douai Abbey, Romsey Abbey, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Queen's College, Oxford, Southwark Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral; he can be heard accompanying the choir of Southwark Cathedral on a CD of Christmas carols released in 2005.

Karl Dorman studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Nicolas Kynaston and is now completing his undergraduate studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire. He was Director of Music at St Philip's and All Saints', Kew, a post he combined with that of associate conductor of Sine Nomine, a professional chamber choir based in the Midlands. He has given recitals at Coventry Central Hall, and All Saints', Margaret Street.

Born in Athens, Ourania Gassiou studied the piano with Vinia Tsopela and the organ with Nicolas Kynaston in the Athens Concert Hall with a three-year scholarship awarded by the Friends of Music Society. In 2004 she received a scholarship to study under Nicolas Kynaston at the Royal Academy of Music. She was awarded various prizes and graduated with distinction and DipRAM, the highest award for performance. She won Third Prize in the International Organ Competition of St Moritz in 2005, First Prize in the Panhellenic Piano Competition in Andros and Second Prize in the Panhellenic Piano Competition. In 2005 she was awarded an Eric Thompson Trust grant to continue private tuition with Johannes Geffert in Cologne. She is currently a scholar of the Alexandros Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.

Eleni Keventsidou graduated in piano in 1995, with a unanimous First Prize, from the National Athens Conservatory. In 1998 she won the second prize in the Thirteenth Panhellenic Piano Competition and was then awarded a three-year scholarship by the Friends of Music Society to study the organ with Nicolas Kynaston at the Athens Concert Hall. She continued her studies with Nicolas Kynaston and David Titterington at the Royal Academy of Music, where she won several prizes and awards and graduated with distinction. In 2003 Eleni was awarded a scholarship from the Alexander S. Onassis Scholarship Foundation. She has performed in Greece, UK, France, Spain and Germany and is currently she is Organist-in-Residence at Tonbridge School.

William McVicker read Music at St Hild and St Bede College, Durham and won an Organ Scholarship, a British Academy Scholarship and a Bowes Bequest to study the organ in Paris. He was later appointed Caedmon Fellow in Music at the University of Durham before being awarded a PhD. William is Director of Music at St Barnabas, Dulwich, Organ Curator at the Royal Festival Hall, and teaches Organology at the Royal Academy of Music. Having spent many years conducting and performing as a soloist and duettist, he now concentrates on organ consultancy work and is Chairman of the Association of Independent Organ Advisers. He is still active as a performer and recently gave concerts in Bath, Bristol, Cambridge and, with the violinist Levon Chilingirian, in Singapore.

Aleksandr Nisse was greatly influenced by his father's teacher, Helmut Walcha. He studied the piano with Valery Krol and began organ studies in 1999 with Susan Landale in Paris. Between 2001 and 2004 he studied with Louis Robilliard at the Conservatoire National de Region de Lyon, where he was awarded a unanimous Premier Prix de Perfectionnement with distinction. Since 2005 has been studying with Susan Landale and Lionel Rogg on the postgraduate performance course at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Andrew Scott began his musical education in 1989 as a chorister at Christ Church, North Shields under the tutelage of Dr Russell Missin. In 1994 he was awarded an Organ Scholarship before being promoted to Assistant Organist and Director of Music. On leaving school, Andrew was apprenticed to Harrison & Harrison Ltd, Organ-Builders of Durham to train as a professional organ-builder. He moved to London in June 2000 to take up the position of London Tuner for Harrison & Harrison and is responsible for the tuning and maintenance of the instruments in most of the main London venues including Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral and the Royal Festival Hall. Andrew spent five years as Organist at St Margaret's, Lee, before taking up the post of Assistant Director of Music and Director of the Girls' Choir at Croydon Parish Church in September 2005.

Sunny Son received a bachelor's degree in organ performance from the University of North Texas, where she studied the organ, harpsichord and continuo playing with Dr Lenora McCroskey. In 2002 she went to the University of Kansas, where she completed her Master's degree, and studied with Dr James Higdon. At both institutions she was awarded several major prizes and received scholarships. Sunny has won several competitions, including the 1999 William C. Hall Pipe Organ Competition in San Antonio,TX, the AGO Regional Young Artists' Organ Competition for Region VII in 1999, and the 2002 Ottumwa Undergraduate Competition in Iowa. She is currently on the Postgraduate Diploma course, studying with David Titterington and Susan Landale, at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

David Titterington was Organ Scholar at Pembroke College, Oxford and continued his studies with Marie-Claire Alain and Susan Landale at the Conservatoire de Rueil-Malmaison, Paris, winning a Premièr Prix à l'unanimité avec les felicitations du Jury. Following his debut at the Royal Festival Hall, in 1986, he has performed world-wide at leading international festivals including Sydney Bicentennial, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Israel, BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Leon, Schleswig Holstein, and with leading orchestras (Berlin Symphony, BBC Symphony, Lahti Symphony, City of London Sinfonia), ensembles and soloists. He gives recitals and masterclasses and is a member of many international juries. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary Professorship and Doctor honoris causa by the State University of Budapest, the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, where he was Visiting Professor 1997-2004, and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists. In 1991 he was appointed a professor of organ at the Royal Academy of Music and since 1996 has been Head of Organ Studies.

Arnfinn Tobiassen is currently a postgraduate organ student at the Royal Academy of Music under Susan Landale and Lionel Rogg, having previously completed his undergraduate degree, studying with David Titterington and James O'Donnell. At the Academy he has received several major prizes, attending masterclasses with a number of distinguished musicians. Arnfinn was awarded the John S. Cohen Charitable Trust Bursary to attend Dartington International Summer School in 2005. In addition to being the Organ Scholar at St Paul's, Knightsbridge, he is also one of the assistant organists at the Dutch Church in London.

Nic Turner began his organ studies at Bolton School with Norman Harper, and continued with Graham Barber at Leeds University and Simon Lindley at Leeds Parish Church. Nic moved to London in 1986, and is now in his second term as Organist and Director of Music at St Giles's, Camberwell. He has performed in many UK cathedrals, including St Paul's, Southwark, Lincoln, Norwich, Brecon and St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. He is accompanist for the Triptych Singers, and accompanies the choir of Wimbledon Parish Church at services and concerts.

John Webber, a member of the Southwark and South London Society of Organists since 1967, studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Harold Dexter and Nicholas Danby. John was appointed organist of St Swithun's, Hither Green at the age of 15 and passed the ARCO at 18 and FRCO at 21. In 1982 he gained the Durham BMus (Hons) and shortly afterwards the CHM and ADCM diplomas. John held appointments at St George's, Beckenham, Chelsea Old Church and St George's, Bickley and is currently based at St John's, East Dulwich. John runs the Beckenham Junior Choir, which he founded in 1993.

Thomas Wilson completed his undergraduate music studies at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, and moved to London in 2003 to undertake postgraduate studies with David Titterington in organ and musicology at the Royal Academy of Music, where his research interests included the organ music of Buxtehude and the choral music of J.S. Bach. At the Academy he won prizes for organ-playing and improvisation and performed in several high-profile concerts, accompanying the cellist Stephen Isserlis at the Wigmore Hall and giving a concerto performance in Neresheim Abbey with the Royal Academy Baroque Orchestra. Thomas has been Assistant Organist at Westminster Cathedral since October 2004. In addition to working with the Cathedral choir he has specific responsibility for music at non-choral services. He was previously Assistant Director and Organist for the choir of Ealing Abbey. In addition to his duties as one of the Cathedral organists, Thomas has recently been appointed Precentor of Westminster Cathedral.