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Gillian Weir
Gillian Weir, born in New Zealand but long resident in England, is one of today's foremost artists. Through her unique career as an internationally-acclaimed concert organist, performing world-wide at the major festivals and with leading orchestras and conductors, Dame Gillian is famous as a distinguished musician known for her artistry, virtuosity and integrity, her reputation extending well beyond the world of the organ.
Her renown as a performer, which has stimulated numerous young players to follow her, is backed by her scholarly reputation; she is in demand as an adjudicator for all the leading international competitions and as a lecturer, broadcaster, teacher and writer, while her television appearances have reached vast new audiences. Her repertoire is exceptional in its breadth and variety, stretching from the Renaissance to contemporary works. She has performed the complete works of Bach as well as those of Messiaen and others, and her pre-eminent position as Messiaen interpreter has been underlined with the release of his complete organ works on compact disc. This was universally received with such plaudits as Le Monde's ( Paris ) "This intégrale is a worthy successor to that by Messiaen himself" and with Yvonne Loriod Messiaen's, "C'est magnifique!". She has also made major contributions to Faber's The Messiaen Companion and other publications. She has received a host of prizes, awards and honors, and in 1996 was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of her distinguished services to music, after having been made CBE in 1989.
Gillian Weir's achievements have been marked by the re-issue on compact disc of her legendary series of Argo recordings, and by her nomination by Classic CD magazine as one of the 100 Greatest Keyboard Players of the Century, as well as by the Sunday Times as one of the 1000 Music Makers of the Millennium. In December 2000, Britain 's famed South Bank Show (on the ITV network) chronicled her worldwide activities as performer, teacher and recording artist in a fascinating documentary.
Gillian Weir's schedule in the past year has included performances in the USA, Canada, Spain and Scandinavia as well as the prestigious Leipzig Gewandhaus and Cologne Philharmonie, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and London 's Royal Festival Hall, where she was making her 45th appearance. She re-opened the rebuilt organ in Edinburgh 's famous Usher Hall, and in an unusual recital in Westminster Abbey, collaborated with dancers from the English National Ballet. She was an adjudicator for the international organ competitions in Paris, Calgary and Erfurt, Germany . In the 2003/2004 season, she has given courses on Franck and Mendelssohn in Speyer Cathedral and Trier Cathedral, Germany . She has given a recital at the basilica of Saint-Sernin in France and was the featured soloist in a program of concertos for the Toulouse Festival. She has completed her much-praised trilogy for Priory Records' Organ Master Series with a double-CD of Bach and has recorded another Bach 2-CD set on the new Bach organ in the composer's own church, St. Thomas, Leipzig . 2002 saw the eagerly anticipated re-issue of her Messiaen recordings on Priory to reviews of which the Gramophone's "performances that reclaim their definitive status" is typical. Forthcoming is the re-issue of the CD which accompanied her BBC television series, The King of Instruments, which drew weekly audiences of two million viewers in the UK and was seen in many other countries, featuring performances on six of Europe 's finest instruments. The transfer to CD of her legendary early LP recordings, issued as a 5-CD set, will be available imminently as separate CDs.
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