Organ Recital

The 2024 Cathedral Organ Recital Series welcomes first-rate organists to play Truro’s acclaimed Father Willis Organ. Performing this week is Benjamin Chewter. This recital will be live-streamed on this page at 13:10 and our YouTube channel

Programme

Coronation March from Le Prophète – Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) arr. W. T. Best (1826-1897)

Andante (Méditations Religieuses Op. 122) – Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869)

Fantasia and Fugue on ‘Ad nos, ad salutarem undam’ – Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

i) Moderato -

ii) Adagio -

iii) Fugue

Bio

Benjamin Chewter is Organist at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, a large Baptist church founded in 1650 and widely-known for being pastored by Charles Spurgeon in the nineteenth century; it still holds to the same principles of traditional worship, fervent evangelism and the doctrines of grace under its present pastor, Dr Peter Masters. Alongside this work, Benjamin is a concert organist and freelance teacher.

Educated at Christ's Hospital School in his native Sussex, Benjamin held the Organ Scholarship at Canterbury Cathedral before going up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge as Organ Scholar (where he read Music and was Organist of King’s Voices, the mixed-voice choir of King’s College Chapel). He then held the Organ Scholarship at Westminster Abbey and was subsequently Assistant Organist at Lincoln Cathedral before moving to Chester Cathedral as Assistant Director of Music. In 2016 he moved to London after four and a half years at Chester.

As an organist and conductor he has performed extensively throughout the UK and abroad, particularly in Germany, and has appeared frequently as an organist for live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Contemporary music has a strong place in his repertoire, and he has premiered new music by Howard Skempton, Philip Moore, Francis Pott and Matthew Martin. Recent recital venues have included Hull City Hall (Reubke Sonata on the 94th Psalm) and Chester Cathedral (Widor Symphonie VI) with upcoming concerts at Gloucester, Chester, St Albans and Blackburn Cathedrals.

Benjamin studied organ repertoire with Dame Gillian Weir and Stephen Farr and improvisation with David Briggs; he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and also holds the College's Choral Conducting Diploma. He is married to Catherine and they have a three-year-old son, Micah.

Live-stream

The series runs from March to October and each recital lasts around 45 minutes. There is no charge to attend or listen to these concerts. We rely on your support to help with the cost of maintaining the cathedral’s famous Father Willis Organ. Keeping the cathedral’s musical instruments in first-rate condition enables us to put on such recitals.

To give regularly by Direct Debit, please use the Parish Giving Scheme Single donations can be made through Just Giving. Popular donations are £5/person