In 2005, I moved from my home in South London, UK, and relocated (with my new USA wife) to the City of Sandy, Oregon, USA (between Portland OR and Mount Hood) where, since August 2009, I have held the position of Organist at Sandy’s Immanuel Lutheran Church (LCMS). All styles of music from Plainsong right through to Worship-Group Band music is strongly encouraged and appreciated (the latter used only as and where appropriate) in accordance with the Traditional Liturgical Seasons and Calendar with its Three Year Liturgical Cycle. The 3 Manual Rogers Organ plays a prominent part in all forms of worship.
I'm also a very keen and avid HAUPTWERK (tm) (Virtual Organ) user. My home set-up includes (as at January 2021) full sample sets for Salisbury Cathedral UK (Milan Digital Audio); Hereford Cathedral UK (Lavender Audio); the absolutely amazing Sonnenorgel Gorlitz Organ (Sonus Paradisi); the wonderful (and very famous) Muller instrument from Haarlem, Holland (Voxus Organs); The reigning champion (in my books) of all sample sets, the fabulous Laurenskerk Rotterdam instrument (Sonus Paradisi); the beautiful Caen Organ (Sonus Paradisi) and recently, the Tuba King of all Tuba-blessed instruments, Alessandria (Piotr Grabowski).
Whilst living in South London (UK), I enjoyed both a rewarding full-time career with the British Tourist Authority (now known as VisitBritain) which afforded, and provided, much overseas travel to many countries around the world. In addition, I made sure to continue pursuing my main love and very much-beloved hobby (yes, hobby) in life, Church Music, and was indeed blessed with both the honour and privilege of being able to hold, for thirty years (in addition to my full-time employment with BTA and the joys of being a single parent to my daughter) the posts of both Assistant Organist and then Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church, Clapham Common, Clapham, South London (Abolitionist William Wilberforce’s church), a famous, busy and very well-attended London Parish Church with its fine three manual Hunter organ (Alfred Hunter was one-time a Church Warden at Holy Trinity, hence the magnificent organ); Holy Trinity's separate adult and children's choirs; the Clapham Churches multi-denominational mighty joint choir choir-fests (advent Sunday - from Darkness to Light - in particular); its regular weekly and other (often special) services (Civic, British Legion, Ordinations, Memorials, Weddings, Funerals etc., etc); the many concerts, recitals and exhibitions and other artistic events through Trinity Arts; its Radio and Television broadcasts (including a Palm Sunday and Easter morning BBC TV broadcast and, yes, the big daddy of all religious TV broadcasts, BBC TV’s Songs of Praise!).
Entirely self-taught musically (how I now wish that I had had proper lessons - if I had, I often wonder where that would have taken me on my musical journey through life), I believe that when needed, special music for a given or special service should be encouraged and composed where appropriate, and in so doing, simplicity in its style and form is often the winning combination given the resources available today.
