Marcus Davidson
COMPOSER
As a composer of organ music, Marcus has been experimenting with ways of expanding the sound of the church organ with tape, natural sounds and voice.
His organ works have be performed at festivals across Europe including; La Batie – Switzerland, Festival of Holland, Gas – Sweden, Fuse – Leeds, CTM – Berlin, York Minster, Spitalfields – London, Konstraste – Krems, Borealis and Bergen Kirke Autumnale – Norway. His compositions have been broadcast by BBC Radio, Radio, Deutschlandradio, Swiss Radio, ORF – Austria, Radio Sweden. Selected organ works are released on the Touch label.
About ”The Passing” –
“The Passing” (for organ and tape) was one of the night’s twin highlights. . . The richness of the sounds at play here was as mesmerising as the evolution of the performance was powerfully compulsive. Tim Owen June 2012 Dalston Sound.
Broadcast by Deutschlandradio on 24th February 2012 by Marcus Gammel as part of their review of the CTM12 festival, recorded at the Passionskirche, Berlin.
Marcus writes for a variety of music. He featured in the Bergen International Music Festival 2012 with his Bee Symphony, a collaboration with renowned sound recordist Chris Watson, where recordings of honey bees are fused with human song.
He regularly collaborates with London based a cappella trio Voice, who included his compositions on their albums and tours and is a member of Spire, the Organ based project by Touch.
Charles Matthews
ORGANIST
Born in 1966, Charles Matthews studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and was an organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. His teachers have included Beryl Tichbon, Gwilym Isaac, David Pettit, Patricia Carroll, Nicholas Danby, Charles Spinks and Dr Richard Marlow.
Charles has won numerous awards, perhaps most notably first prize in the 1999 Franz Liszt Organ Interpretation Competition in Budapest. His most recent solo recording is of Francis Routh’s cycle The Well-Tempered Pianist; some tracks from this CD can be heard free of charge at the composer’s website.
Recent engagements include solo performances in the UK and Spain, as well as duo recitals with flute, recorder, violin, ‘cello and voice. Performances in recent months include premières of new works by Susan Howley, Rob Jones and Andrew Glover-Whitley.
A collection of Charles’s compositions for flute and piano was published in 2006 by Schott.
Charles has performed for productions by the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet, and recorded music used in various theatres in Spain.
Charles is organist of St Catharine’s Church, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, and also contributes to the Spire organ and electronics project. He works extensively with young people, teaches piano at King’s High School, Warwick, acts as piano accompanist and organ tutor at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and works as conductor and contemporary music coach for the annual Curso Internacional Matisse at San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, where he runs the Ensemble Postante.