Neil Wright

Neil Wright studied organ, piano, harpsichord and clavichord at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. He studied organ with Dame Gillian Weir and Eric Chadwick, and piano with Marjorie Clementi, and was awarded the RNCM Prize for the Playing of Bach. In 1976 he was featured on BBC television playing the music of Widor on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of Manchester Town Hall. In 1979 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and received the Dixon Prize for extemporisation

While living in the USA during the 1980s he worked as a choral director, organist and singer, founding and directing the early music ensemble Lauda in Los Angeles. In the 1990’s he furthered his studies in improvisation and composition with Naji Hakim and attended classes with Peter Planyavsky, Bert Matter, Guy Bovet and Loïc Mallié, becoming twice a prize-winner in the Haarlem International Organ Improvisation Competition, and a finalist in the Pachelbel Prize competition in Nuremberg, Germany.

From 1994 he was the Assistant Organist of the Brompton Oratory, London, until his appointment in 2001 as Organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ of St. Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, where he accompanies the Benedictine monks Latin liturgy. (www.farnboroughabbey.org).

In 2006 Neil Wright, with Christopher Bowers-Broadbent and Martin Stacey, assisted in the establishment of the Annual Festival of New Organ Music (www.afnom.org), the international forum for contemporary composers, taking place in London during August. Some of Neil's compositions for choir and organ on Triduum (2008) including A Dreame and Fugue Angelicall, Triptych and Four Triduum Motets were recorded by Priory Records in 2008, and works by Franck, Guilmant and Berlioz, played on the celebrated Cavaillé-Coll organ of Farnborough Abbey, may be heard on Le Tombeau d’Eugénie (2003) and L’Organiste (2008), also on the Priory label.

Neil Wright has performed in the USA and Europe, and some recent engagements include a recital for the Prince and Princess Napoleon in honour of their visit to Farnborough Abbey on the occasion of the 200th birthday celebrations of the Emperor Napoleon III; he also participated in the "Ommagio di Olivier Messiaen" Festival in Cremona Cathedral, Italy, and recently gave a recital and interview in Stuttgart, Germany in celebration of the Mendelssohn bicentenary. In July he played in the Orgelsommer in Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany, and more recently performed in Vannes Cathedral, Brittany, St Peter's Church, Ruthin, North Wales and in Port Erin, Isle of Man.

Additional information may be found on the following websites:

www.cavaille-coll.co.uk
www.neilwright.co.uk