Thomas Trotter: Celebrating 40 years as Birmingham City Organist

“One of the greatest players of this, or any, age” declared Choir and Organ magazine of Thomas Trotter. Awarded The Queen’s Medal for Music 2020, he is among the world’s most celebrated organists and has elevated the tradition of the virtuoso organist to new heights.

As Birmingham City Organist since 1983 – only the seventh post-holder since 1834 – he has had a major influence on Birmingham’s musical life, and this concert celebrates a remarkable 40th anniversary with a typically captivating programme. There’s Baroque brilliance in Bach’s ‘Great’ Fantasia and Fugue; fiendish difficulty for both hands and feet in Edwin Lemare’s transcription of Wagner’s Rienzi Overture; and Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue, based on music from Meyerbeer’s opera Le prophète, which made an emphatic case for the organist as a concert performer, not solely a church musician.

In 40 years, Trotter has commissioned many exciting new works (you can hear some of them in his lunchtime concert series). Expect a suitably celebratory piece from Cheryl Frances-Hoad whose music, says the American Record Guide, is “melodic, passionate, equal parts humour and reverence”.

Thomas Trotter is an Associate Artist of B:Music