Binns Organ - Lunchtime Concert
Paul Hale
Monday 21st July 2025
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) War March of the Priests (arr. Frank E Brown)
David Machell (born 1953) From Suite for Organ (dedicated to Paul Hale), i. Aria; ii. March
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Vocalise (arr. Ian Miles)
Denis Bédard (born 1950) Variations on ‘Amazing Grace’
Noel Rawsthorne (1929-2019) Prelude on ‘The Londonderry Air’
Eric Coates (1886-1957) Knightsbridge March (arr. John Catling)
The concert runs from 1.10pm to 1.55pm. Admission £5. Feel free to bring your own lunch.
Paul Hale was a music scholar at Solihull School, where his life-long passion for the organ was ignited. He won an organ scholar New College, Oxford, studying under David Lumsden. Having been awarded the ARCM and FRCO, he taught at Tonbridge School and was then Assistant Organist of Rochester Cathedral.
Paul was Cathedral Organist at Southwell Minster from April 1989; on becoming Rector Chori Emeritus in 2016, he was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the Lambeth Thomas Cranmer Award for his “immense and devoted service”, having previously been awarded honorary Fellowships by the Guild of Church Musicians and the Royal School of Church Music.
Paul Hale was Conductor of the Nottingham Bach Choir (of which he has recently been made President) for twenty-nine years and has been a diploma examiner and Trustee of the Royal College of Organists, President of The Organ Club, of the Cathedral Organists’ Association and of the Nottingham & District Society of Organists, as well as Chairman of the Diocesan Organ Advisers’ Conference and of the RSCM East Midlands.
Paul has long been diocesan organ adviser for both Southwell and Lincoln, and is known as one of the United Kingdom’s leading organ consultants(new 4-manual organs for Gloucester Cathedral and Great St Bartholomew’s Priory, Smithfield being two of many current projects); he still gives lectures and has columns in Organists’ Review and Choir & Organ.
A review of a recent organ concert at St Peter’s, here in Nottingham, included “His mastery of colour is an inspiration, and his orchestration of the Hindemith was just wonderful – never have I been so aware of the partnership between composer and performer!”. Paul is delighted to be back playing the great Binns at the Albert Hall, having served as one of its Trustees for a number of years.
Tickets: £5.00