The Organ
The Alexandra Palace Organ Appeal
Registered Charity No.:285222, London N22 7AY
Tuesday 16th of February 2010, 7.30 pm

Paul Carr

Director of Music at St. Paul’s in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham

Programme

to include Overture Ruslan & Lyudmila, Glinka; Vocalise, Rachmaninov; Fantasia on Carmen, Bizet; Dance of the Reed Pipes, Tchaikowsky; Prelude & Fugue in D (BWV 532) and Gigue Fugue (BWV 577) by Bach; Dance Suite, Rawsthorne; and the Hungarian Dance No. 1. by Dvorak.


Paul Carr is Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, and leads a busy schedule as both solo recitalist and choral accompanist. He studied under Dr Roy Massey MBE at Hereford Cathedral and Professor David Saint at Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with first-class honours. He was elected President of the Birmingham Organists' Association in March 2008.

Paul has performed on many of the finest instruments in the UK. Recent engagements include solo recitals at Birmingham's Cathedrals, Blenheim Palace, Truro Cathedral, Victoria Hall Hanley, Rochdale Town Hall, Portsmouth Cathedral and Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. Recitals this year include Birmingham Town Hall, Westminster Abbey, Malvern Priory, Lichfield Cathedral, St Giles' Cathedral Edinburgh and a return to Glasgow to play three recitals at Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

He has performed often in Germany, most recently in Munster where in August he will return to give his third Angeluskonzert at the Lambertikirche. In August 2008 Paul gave a Sunday audition d'orgue at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris.

Paul gives an additional twelve concerts throughout the year in his series of Sunday Afternoon Organ Music which he established at Holy Trinity Parish Church Wordsley, Stourbridge, in 2003. These take place on the first Sunday of every month at 3.00pm. In July 2008 Paul launched Thursday Live, a new series of organ recitals at St Paul's in the Jewellery Quarter, on the first Thursday of every month at 1.15pm.

Between 1993 and 2003 he performed 100 lunchtime organ recitals on the very fine 1909 Norman & Beard organ at Cradley Heath Methodist Church. Leading up to and following the closure of the church in July 2004, Paul and his wife Hannah worked tirelessly to re-home the instrument, which was eventually re-homed on the other side of the world, at the Gulangyu Organ Museum in Xiamen, China. Future plans include a visit to Xiamen where Paul will give concerts on this and other instruments acquired by the museum from around the world.

In collaboration with pianist Michael Jones Paul has explored repertoire for organ and piano by composers including Dale Wood, Flor Peeters and Marcel Dupre. He has toured with choirs to Poland, the Czech Republic and Birmingham's sister city, Chicago, USA, to where he will return in April this year to give a solo recital at the Fourth Presbyterian Church, whose instrument is one of the largest in the Midwest. In the UK his work with choirs has a particular emphasis on French repertoire. He also regularly accompanies visiting choirs in cathedrals around the country. In July he will accompany Birmingham Festival Choral Society on their concert tour of Slovakia.

Paul has taught in primary education for 14 years, and also serves as Council member of the Worcestershire Organists' Association. He lives in the West Midlands with his wife Hannah.

Please visit Paul's website: www.paulcarr.co.uk

Stands

The Alexandra Palace Organ Appeal will be selling copies of “The Finest Concert Organ in Europe” at £2.00 and “Alexandra Palace & People” by Fred Clarke at £2.00.

The Friends of the Alexandra Palace Organ Appeal will be providing opportunities to check the addresses of all Friends and to take the names of all those who wish to join.

Jean and Sid Perkins will be selling CD’s, Cassettes and sheet music.

Future recitals

Wednesday 7th April at 7.30 pm Andrew Fletcher (International Recitalist)

Thursday 15th July at 7.30 pm Dr. Francis Jackson CBE, Organist Emeritus York Minster

Wednesday 4th of August at 7.30 pm Two Bright Young Stars: Richard Dawson (Organ Scholar Elect, Emmanuel College, Cambridge); Laurence Williams (former Organ Scholar, St. George's Chapel, Windsor)

Wednesday 1st September at 6.30 pm Friends' Evening - Come and Play.

Wednesday 24th November at 5.30 pm Annual Supper followed by Donald Mackenzie, organist of the Odeon, Leicester Square, who will play a programme of solo items and accompany silent films.