The organ recital at St Swithun’s Church Retford this month is on Thursday 15th June at 1.00pm and features Paul Hale, a popular contributor over many years.
Paul was Cathedral Organist and Rector Chori at Southwell Minster for 27 years, having previously been Assistant Organist of Rochester Cathedral, Organist of Tonbridge School, Organ Scholar of New College, Oxford and a music scholar at Solihull School, where he began his life-long passion for playing and designing organs and for training choirs. He is now Southwell Cathedral Organist Emeritus.
Paul has been Musical Director of the Nottingham Bach Choir, a diploma examiner for the Royal College of Organists, President of the Nottingham and District Society of Organists, chairman of the RSCM Southwell and Nottinghamshire Area, a Trustee of the Percy Whitlock Trust, of the Royal College of Organists and of the Nottingham Albert Hall Binns Trust.
Organ Adviser to the dioceses of Southwell and Lincoln, Paul is in national demand as an independent organ consultant, with projects in cathedrals, churches, concert halls and schools all over the UK and beyond.
In 2017 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred upon Paul the ‘Lambeth Thomas Cranmer Award’ in appreciation of his contribution in furthering the music of the Church of England.
Paul gives organ concerts and lectures throughout the world, over the years being delighted to include in his concert schedule such world-renowned organs as St Sulpice (Paris), Ottobeuren Abbey, Bergen Dom, Freiberg Dom, Magdeburg Dom, Birmingham, Leeds, Huddersfield, Hull and Reading Town Halls, St John’s and Trinity Colleges Cambridge, Merton and Queen’s Colleges Oxford, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and both Liverpool cathedrals.
Go and have a light lunch from 12.15pm and stay for a feast of superb music. Entry is free, but a donation is welcome for the maintenance of this fine instrument.