Sneak eavesdrop on top organist

International organist Jonathan Scott

International organist Jonathan Scott will take a Rochdale audience behind-the-scenes to show how he makes the music that makes him a star.

The audience at his Celebrity Concert in the Parish Church, St Chad’s, on Friday 27 June, will be able to eavesdrop on his performance.

A secret TV camera will focus on his hands and feet on the console as he plays. The audience will have a sneak view of the charismatic young organist ‘at work,’ on a big screen set up in the church.

Jonathan’s concert is the highlight of the Parish Church’s musical year. The booking is a ‘scoop’ for St Chad.s, who have persuaded him to squeeze the concert into his busy home and overseas schedule.

He will present an evening programme of pieces by Bach, Widor, Mozart and Elgar. With some surprises.

Jonathan Scott enjoys a hugely varied performing career on a diverse spectrum of keyboard instruments - organ, piano, harpsichord and harmonium - and is in great demand as a soloist and chamber musician. He presents a wide variety of repertoire including many of his own arrangements.

Born in Manchester, he studied piano and organ at Chetham’s School of Music, graduating to the Royal Northern College of Music.

After studies in the United States and Holland, his award-winning talent has taken him
to play in the world’s top concert halls with leading international orchestras.

Jonathan is a Freeman of the City of London, and the Lord Mayor of London invited
him earlier this year to give a solo recital at the Mansion House on the new organ for
Westminster Abbey.

The St Chad’s concert will be the first major performance on the church’s newly rebuilt
1885 Hill pipe organ. More than £120,000 was raised by the congregation in a five-year fundraising campaign for a root-and-branch renewal of the historic instrument.

It is described as “a Rolls Royce of an organ, top of its league.”

Jonathan’s style of performance has attracted media attention wherever he has
played. “An organist with a difference,” says one music magazine. “Young, charismatic
and not afraid.”

And another: “What a great future organ playing has in this country with young instrumentalists of this calibre who pull off stylistic wonders with such aplomb.”

Admission to the Rochdale concert, at 7.30 pm, is £8.