Each musician has selected organ music and organ transcriptions which are most suited to the organ at the venue in which he is playing; at Sacred Heart Cathedral, the historic 1904 Bishop & Son (UK) four-manual instrument; and at St Kilian’s Church, the1872 Randebrock (Germany) two-manual tracker-action organ.
After the one-hour recitals, there will be thirty minutes of sung Evening Prayer. Everyone is invited to this prayer gathering.
Proceeds from the organ recitals will support the Aspire Foundation ( Aspire Foundation - Sacred Heart Cathedral, Sandhurst Diocese ) which was established to help preserve and protect the heritage of Sacred Heart Cathedral.
For more information and to book tickets go to: www.grandorgan.com
Sacred Heart Cathedral is one of the world's finest Gothic Revival cathedrals and possibly the last finished in the twentieth century. The Cathedral is an icon of Bendigo and occupies a central place in the community for people from all faith traditions. It provides opportunities for tourism, the performing arts and many other avenues of community participation. The foundation stone was laid in 1896 and the Cathedral was finally completed in 1977.
Mr Christopher Cook
Christopher graduated in piano & organ from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1983 and has worked in the music and education professions variously as teacher, performer, accompanist, conductor, musical director & concert producer; as well as examiner for primary, secondary and tertiary music institutions, for ANZCA and the AMEB.
Christopher works with a wide social spectrum of society, and is able to communicate with varied age groups and musical development. He has played concerts in UK and Europe and performed in all states of Australia, as soloist and accompanying choral groups in orchestral-organ transcriptions of Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Mendelssohn Elijah etc.
In addition to varied and extensive pro bono and free-lance activities, Christopher is currently Repetiteur/Accompanist/piano and theory tutor at Haileybury and The Peninsula School, an Organ Tutor for University of Melbourne, and Director of Music at St John’s Church, Toorak. He is a Director of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia [ohta.org.au] and the Australian and New Zealand College of Organists [anzco.org]. Mr Christopher Cook
Thomas Heywood
‘An acknowledged master’, Heywood has travelled over 750,000 miles or 1.2 million kilometres performing solo concerts on the most celebrated pipe organs across the globe. He has an ever-growing repertoire of over 5,000 works and was the first Australian musician in history to live as a professional concert organist'. The Dalla Morning News USA
https://www.concertorgan.com/pages/biography-en Thomas Heywood
Dr Paul Taylor
Paul is currently Director of Music and Organist at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo. He was formerly Director of Music at St Patrick’s Cathedral. Following studies with John Hogan in Bendigo, he majored in organ at Australian Catholic University, studying with Geoffrey Cox, and in 1993, completed a Master of Arts degree, specialising in liturgy, at the University of Notre Dame, IN, USA. His MMus degree (2000) featured a recital of the eighteen “Leipzig” chorale preludes of J. S. Bach and a thesis on Catholic hymnody in Australia. In 2010, he earned a PhD directed by Dianne Gome at ACU with a dissertation on liturgical chant. He is currently serving a term as Executive Secretary of the Bishops Commission for Liturgy of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. He has served as an organist at St Francis’ Church and the St Patrick’s Cathedral and sung bass in the choirs of both churches.