Pilgrim’s International Organist Series is the brainchild of two of its former leading members, the late Ian Johnson and the late Brian Jones. They dreamt of expanding Pilgrim’s organ to the scale of a large English Cathedral instrument, and then inviting organists of international standing to Adelaide to give recitals on it. Through patience, hard work, and great personal financial generosity, this dream became a reality two decades ago. Through it, some of the world’s foremost organists have given recitals in Adelaide, including Simon Preston, Daniel Roth, John Scott and Olivier Latry.
The name Thomas Trotter has been intimately entwined with Pilgrim’s International Organ Series, since even before its official beginnings. This will be Thomas’ fifth visit to Pilgrim as a recitalist: the first was in 1995, under the auspices of the Organ Music Society of Adelaide. Thomas’ involvement at that time was inspirational in the eventual launch in 2003 of our International Organist Series. Since then, Thomas has been back in 2005, 2008 and 2010.
After ‘local boy’ David Drury (well, he’s from Sydney 😊), Thomas Trotter has been our most frequent visiting organist. He’s always stunned us with his virtuosity and command of widely disparate and even the most demanding repertoire. He is also a very decent chap and great company! We are very much looking forward to hosting him again at Pilgrim, especially after such a long break.
At his recital on Wednesday 16 August at 7:30pm Thomas will be performing an exciting program featuring works by Bach/Vivaldi, Ligeti, Wolstenholme, Michel and finishing with Liszt’s Ad nos (for more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/796521182060394). He will also be playing for the evensong 5pm Saturday 12 August, and for choral eucharist 11am Sunday 13 August.
Happy 20th birthday to Pilgrim’s International Organist Series!
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