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Wayne Marshall

Organist-in-Residence at The Bridgewater Hall

Educated at Chetham's School, Manchester, Wayne Marshall then became organ scholar at Manchester Cathedral before entering the Royal College of Music. There he studied organ with Nicholas Danby and piano with Angus Morrison, graduating in 1983 with several major prizes for both instruments. After a period as organ scholar at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, he continued his organ studies at the Vienna Hochschule.

Now an internationally-known organ recitalist, he draws on an exceptionally large and varied repertoire. UK recitals have included the Royal Festival Hall, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, Bath Festival, King's College, Cambridge and the BBC; overseas recitals have included many leading USA, European and Far East concert series and Festivals. Other musical activities include improvisation, composition, conducting and jazz. He featured in the 1997 'Last Night of the Proms' as both organ and piano soloist and appeared as pianist and conductor in the 1998 Victoires de la Musique awards with the Orchestre de Paris. In May 1998 he received the BBC Music Magazine's 'Artist of the Year' award.

Highlights of his eclectic career include the acclaimed 1986 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of Porgy and Bess under Simon Rattle and the subsequent EMI recording and television film. He was also Guest Chorus Director for the Royal Opera House 1992 revival. In June 1995 he appeared as piano soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle at the Waldbühne (their annual open-air concert, given to an audience of some 22,000). During February 1999 he gave a solo organ recital in Tokyo's Suntory Hall and also recorded Hindemith Kammermusik No.7 with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic for EMI Classics.

Wayne Marshall is Organist-in Residence of The Bridgewater Hall and gave the inaugural solo recital on the splendid Marcussen organ. In addition to consultation over programming, his duties at The Bridgewater Hall range from appearances as organist, pianist, duo recitalist and conductor (including concerts with the Hallé and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras), to education and outreach programmes.

He has recordings with EMI Classics, Virgin Classics and Philips Classics. Releases include 'I Got Rhythm', 'Gershwin Songbook' (for which he was awarded a Deutscher Schallplattenpreis in 1998), Rhapsody in Blue, the original film soundtrack version of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody with John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, an organ/trumpet duo recording with Ole Edvard Antonsen, Saint-Saëns Third ('Organ') Symphony with Oslo Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons and two highly-praised Gershwin CDs in which he features as both conductor and soloist with the Aalborg Symphony. He has released 'Symphonie', a solo album of virtuoso organ music, recorded on The Bridgewater Hall's Marcussen organ and his organ transcriptions CD, 'Get Organised' was released in February 2000 and his Berlin Philharmonic Hindemith recording was recently released to excellent reviews.