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From 12.30pm to 1.15 on the first Friday of every month, we present Friday Lunchtime Organ Music
All welcome, free entry, collection at the end for music at St Michael’s.
The 2025 season of Organ Recitals is kindly sponsored by Home Instead and Ballet4Life
On Friday February 7th, the organist is Matthew Blaiden, director of music at St Stephen’s Rochester Row and organist, St John’s Smith Square, Westminster.
Programme
Louis Marchand Grand Dialogue from 3ème Livre d’orgue
1669 – 1732
Florence Price Adoration
1887 – 1953
Camille Saint-Saëns Fantaisie op. 157
1835 – 1921
Ghislaine Reece-Trapp In Paradisum
b. 1992
Johann Sebastian Bach Pièce d’orgue BWV 572
1685 – 1750
Biography:
Matthew Blaiden is Director of Music at St Stephen’s, Rochester Row, in the parish of St Stephen with St John, Westminster. He took up this post in September 2019 and, in addition to coordinating all the music at St Stephen’s, his responsibilities have included playing the organ for parish services in the world-famous St John’s, Smith Square. Matthew has also been active in a freelance capacity across the UK as an organist, conductor, and baritone. Alongside his musical activity, Matthew pursues academic research interests which lie particularly in the literature and culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Matthew was educated at King’s College School, Wimbledon, where he sang in the school Chamber Choir under Daniel Phillips in many prestigious venues in the UK, including Westminster Abbey, Southwark Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and Canterbury Cathedral. He also sang with them on international tours across Ireland and Italy and recorded a CD of Christmas music on which he was a soloist. While at school, Matthew studied the piano with Muriel Levin and the organ and improvisation with Ronny Krippner.
Matthew studied English Language & Literature at King’s College London, graduating with 1st Class Honours, and then went to Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge to take an M.Phil. in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Whilst studying in London he was awarded an organ scholarship at St Peter’s Church, Petersham, and later he was appointed Assistant Organist at Little St Mary’s Church, Cambridge. After Cambridge, Matthew returned to London and combined a busy freelance schedule with being the Director of Music at St Mary Magdalene, Richmond (Surrey) until the end of September 2016. Between October 2016 and July 2022, Matthew conducted doctoral research at the University of Leeds, alongside which he sang with the Choir of Leeds Minster as a choral scholar under Paul Dewhurst until 2019. Continuing his organ studies throughout this time, Matthew has participated in masterclasses given by, amongst others, the late Jacques van Oortmerssen, Ashley Grote, William Whitehead, Tom Bell, Graham Barber, and Rosemary Field, and he has engaged in private study with Dame Gillian Weir and Nicolas Kynaston.
Matthew has been a busy organ recitalist across the UK, drawing on a varied repertoire spanning almost 700 years of music from the earliest known keyboard writing to contemporary music, including new pieces written for him by Will Barry and Ian de Massini. He has performed at King’s College London and in college chapels in Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham; at many cathedrals including Westminster Cathedral and both cathedrals in Southwark; at Westminster Abbey; and in many other churches and concert halls. Upcoming engagements include performances at the Guards’ Chapel at Wellington Barracks and at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Our organ
Our organ was built in Switzerland by the specialist firm La Manufacture d’Orgues St Martin. It has 1,667 pipes, many of which were sponsored by individuals and groups under the church’s Pipe Up! appeal. Other funds were raised from the Bedford Park Festival, fund-raising Balls and a Hymnathon.
Its first formal use was in September 2013 at a Mass of Thanksgiving and Blessing of our new Organ by the Lord Bishop of London, the Rt Reverend Richard Chartres.
