York Minster’s popular organ recitals return this summer with six acclaimed musicians taking centre stage in one of the world’s most magnificent cathedrals.

The series will be opened by Jonathan Scott, before recitals are performed by Caroline Robinson, Ian Tracey and Rachel Mahon.

York Minster’s own acclaimed musicians – Robert Sharpe, Director of Music, and Benjamin Morris, Assistant Director of Music, who are both experienced soloists performing in the UK and abroad – complete the line-up for six nights of spectacular organ music. The recitals will take place on Thursday evenings from 16 July to 20 August, beginning at 7pm.

Good to know:

Tickets for the recitals are available now priced at £15, with a combined season ticket price of £75 for all six recitals. A concessionary price of £8 for those aged 27 and under is also available, with a combined season ticket price of £40. Tickets can be booked via the York Minster Box Office or by calling 01904 557200.

Each ticket includes a free, souvenir programme filled with stunning full-colour photographs of York Minster’s Grand Organ and programme notes written by the talented David Gammie. Programmes will be available to collect inside the building on the night of each performance.

Please note, no cash payments can be made inside York Minster.

Organist dates and details: 

Jonathan Scott – Thursday 16 July 

Described as “The leading British organist” (BBC RADIO 3), Jonathan Scott enjoys a hugely varied international performing career on a diverse spectrum of keyboard instruments, and is known throughout the world for his virtuoso arrangements and performances of major orchestral music for the pipe organ. As Associate Artist of The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Jonathan gives a series of organ recitals which attract huge audiences, and with his brother, Tom, his performance videos on the Scott Brother Duo YouTube channel have achieved more than 100 million views, making them some of the most watched in the world.

Recent and forthcoming performances include solo and concerto appearances across the UK as well as performances at the major festivals, venues and Concert Halls in Armenia, Andorra, Germany, Denmark, France, Hungary, Norway, Italy, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Latvia, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore.

Other recent concert highlights include a series of Concerto performances with the National Chinese Orchestra of Taiwan and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the reopening concerts at the organs of Rochdale Town Hall, UK, St Mary’s Basilica, Kevelaer, Germany and All Saints Church, Warsaw, Poland, as well as solo organ concerts for Aldeburgh Festival, Lyon Concert Hall, France, Rheingau Festival, Germany, and BBC Proms, broadcast live from the organ of the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Jonathan gave the world premiere of the new organ concerto ‘6000 Pipes!’ by Sir Karl Jenkins for Hull UK City of Culture and has toured this work, including a special gala performance at the Royal Albert Hall, London, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer.

Jonathan also has a busy international concert schedule with his pianist brother, Tom Scott, performing as Scott Brothers Duo.

Scott Brothers Duo are the winners of the ECHO (European Cities of Historical Organs) competition to create a performance which introduces the pipe organ to a young audience. Their project combines animation and organ music and will be performed at major festivals across Europe. In 2023, they were invited by the Royal Canadian College of Organists (Launchpad Series) to film a special online presentation in Montreal, Canada about their career.

Born in Manchester, Jonathan studied piano and organ at Chetham’s School of Music and continued his studies in UK, USA and Netherlands. He won the Worshipful Company of Musicians WT Best Scholarship and gold medal, and is a Freeman of The City of London.

Caroline Robinson – Thursday 23 July 

Organist and church musician Dr. Caroline Robinson has been featured as a solo recitalist across the United States, in venues including New York City churches St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, St. John the Divine, Trinity Church Wall Street, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral; in Boston: Church of the Advent, Harvard Memorial Church, Cambridge, Methuen Memorial Music Hall; St. James in the City, Los Angeles; and Kansas City’s the Kauffman Center. She has also performed in England, France, and Germany. Her playing has been broadcast multiple times on American Public Media’s “Pipedreams,” “Pipedreams LIVE!,” and Philadelphia-based public radio station 90.1 WRTI’s Wanamaker Organ Hour. She has been a featured performer at conventions of the Organ Historical Society, the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, and the American Guild of Organists, for which she performed on the closing concert at the 2022 National AGO Convention in Seattle, collaborating with Seattle Pro Musica on choral and organ works including James MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados.

Dr. Robinson is a laureate of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP), held as part of the 2018 AGO Convention in Kansas City. She holds First Prize from the 11th annual Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival (2008) and from the 10th annual West Chester University Organ Competition (2010). She was a semifinalist in the 2014 Dublin International Organ Competition. In 2016, she was chosen as one of the Diapason’s “20 Under 30” promising young organists in the United States.

Caroline Robinson is Assistant Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan. Previously she served as Organist and Associate Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. There, under the direction of Canon Dale Adelmann, she shared organ playing and accompanying responsibilities and led the cathedral’s RSCM-based Chorister program. She is an active continuo player with early music ensembles, having performed at the Rochester Early Music Festival, San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists Academy, and now regularly with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.

Dr. Robinson completed her undergraduate work at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Alan Morrison. Aided by a grant from the J. William Fulbright fellowship fund, Caroline studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen (organ) and Yasuko Bouvard (harpsichord). Caroline holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and the Master of Music in Organ Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with David Higgs. Dr. Robinson also received from Eastman the Performer’s Certificate and the Advanced Teaching Certificate in
Theory Pedagogy.

Ian Tracey – Thursday 30 July 

Professor Ian Tracey has had a life-long association with Liverpool Cathedral and its music and, with his two illustrious predecessors, continues the tradition of an almost apostolic succession. He studied organ with Lewis Rust and then with his immediate precursor Dr. Noel Rawsthorne. Studies at Trinity College, London, culminated in Fellowship, after which, scholarship grants enabled him to continue his studies in Paris, with both Andre Isoir and Jean Langlais. A further scholarship enabled him to study conducting with the late Dr. Vernon Handley CBE.

In 1980 he became the youngest Cathedral Organist in the country, a post he has held for the past 46 years. Since his appointment, he has played most of the major venues in this country, and an increasing number in Europe; very much in demand in the U.S.A., he has made 25 extensive tours, playing in all the major Cities and in 1999 & 2003 undertook major tours of Southern Australia, recitaling, examining and teaching. Recent seasons have included concerts in New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Bermuda, Paris, Jersey, Germany, Spain, Italy & The Netherlands; he returns to Germany and Holland this Summer.

On the wider musical canvas, he is a frequent broadcaster with the B.B.C., and his recordings on the Cathedral Organ have met with wide acclaim from the critics, recording for E.M.I., CHANDOS and PRIORY. He regularly examines and adjudicates and, over the 38 years of his tenure as Chorus Master to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, until his retirement in 2023, conducted over 250 concerts with the RLPO and Chorus; his association continues as Organist to the Society.

He was Guest Director of Music for the BBC Daily Service for 20 years and is a past president of the Incorporated Association of Organists of Great Britain. He is Organist to the City of Liverpool and curator of the historic ‘Father’ Willis organ at St. George’s Hall, Liverpool where he plays monthly recitals and officiates at City functions. He is also Professor, Fellow and Organist at Liverpool, John Moores University, and Tonal Director for Church Organ World.

In 1994, he was awarded the North West Arts Award for Classical Music, and in 2006 the University of Liverpool conferred him Doctor of Music, in recognition of his long and distinguished service to music in Liverpool and of his national and international reputation. The Royal College of Organists, the Royal School of Church Music and the Guild of Church Musicians have each awarded him Fellowships for distinguished services to church music and to mark his international reputation as a musician. He was commissioned as a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Merseyside in 2015.

Benjamin Morris – Thursday 6 August

Benjamin Morris is Assistant Director of Music at York Minster. In this role, he plays for services and accompanies the choir in the Minster’s daily cycle of music, in concerts, tours, recordings and broadcasts, and assists in the daily training of the choristers. Prior to this, he was Organ Scholar and then Assistant Organist at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating with First-class honours in Music. Before starting university, Ben spent a year as Organ Scholar at Gloucester Cathedral. An experienced conductor and choir trainer, Ben regularly conducts York Minster Choir and is Musical Director of the York-based Chapter House Choir. Ben has spent time as Acting Director of Music both at York Minster and Jesus College, Cambridge.

A prizewinning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Ben is active as organ soloist, accompanist and continuo player. He has given recitals in major venues across the UK and abroad, and appears as accompanist on numerous acclaimed CDs from York Minster and Jesus College. He has performed as organ soloist under Sir Roger Norrington, Howard Shelley, Paul McCreesh, and Sir Stephen Cleobury, and has played organ and harpsichord continuo alongside His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia. He studied organ with Gordon Stewart, Colin Walsh, David Briggs and Richard Pinel, and harpsichord with Terence Charlston.

Rachel Mahon – Thursday 13 August 

Canadian organist and conductor Rachel Mahon is Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral (UK), where, along with playing the organ and curating the recital series, she trains and conducts the Cathedral Choir which consists of adults and separate boys’ and girls’ choirs. Prior to this, she was Assistant Director of Music and before that she was Assistant Organist at Chester Cathedral where she worked regularly with the Cathedral Choir.

Rachel was Organ Scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, England from 2014-2016, and made history as the first female organist on staff in its 1400-year history. As one of the staff organists, she gave recitals and regularly played and conducted for services, working with the world-famous Cathedral Choir in the daily cycle of worship as well as services of national significance.

She combines life as a Cathedral musician with a busy international recital schedule, touring as soloist and as part of Organized Crime Duo. Recent performances have taken her to Oslo, Norway; the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Oklahoma City; St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna; Wϋrzburg and Essen in Germany; and Adelaide and Sydney in Australia. Along with concerts in Sweden and Germany, last year she made her BBC Proms debut in the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This year, she will perform the Saint-Saens again with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Rachel has appeared on radio as performer and presenter, most recently accompanying the BBC Singers in Choral Evensong and presenting Inside Music on BBC radio 3 and This Is My Music on CBC radio. Rachel’s debut solo album, featuring all Canadian music on the organ of Coventry Cathedral and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, was released to excellent reviews – it received five stars in Choir and Organ Magazine and was Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice in March 2020.

Rachel has won numerous awards and competitions in Canada, including a graduating scholarship from the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship from the Royal Canadian College of Organists. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance from the University of Toronto, where she studied with John Tuttle. Whilst pursuing her degree, Rachel was the Bevan Organ Scholar at Trinity College, Toronto, as well as the Principal Organist at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. Once in the UK, she studied with Henry Fairs at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She has also held organ scholarships at St James Cathedral, Toronto and Truro Cathedral, UK.

In 2012, Rachel and fellow organist Sarah Svendsen founded the duo Organized Crime and the two organists aim to entertain audiences with their music and crazy antics. They have toured across Canada many times.

Robert Sharpe – Thursday 20 August 

Robert Sharpe succeeded Dr Philip Moore as Director of Music at York Minster in 2008, being only the fifth holder of that position since 1897. He previously held positions at Truro Cathedral; Lichfield Cathedral; Exeter College, Oxford; and St Albans Abbey.

His work at York Minster centres around the daily choral tradition, with its two treble lines (one each of boys and girls). In addition he performs frequently as an organ soloist, both at home and abroad. He has developed the profile of the Minster Choir through recordings, broadcasts and the daily Evensong service. The daily service has gained a reputation both at home and, since livestreaming began as a response to the covid pandemic, abroad, for the chanting of the psalms and for the breadth of repertoire performed. Robert seeks not only to include the greatest works of the past, but also regularly to commission new works, as well as to champion the work of women composers. On Easter Day 2021, the famous Minster organ was rededicated by the Archbishop of York after a significant (and groundbreaking) reconstruction by the Durham firm of Harrison & Harrison. This sought to recapture the character of the instrument, as left by Sir Edward Bairstow and Arthur Harrison in 1931. The results have already attracted considerable interest in the world of organ building and are widely acclaimed.

Robert has a keen interest in liturgy and music and the interplay between them, and also in interiors and antique clocks and furniture. He holds fellowships of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal College of Organists. In 2008, before moving to York, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians and awarded the 2008 Cornwhylen Cross by the Cornish Gorsedd “for an outstanding contribution to religious music in Cornwall”. From 2019 to 2021, he served as President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association; from 2022 to 2023 he served as President of the Incorporated Association of Organists.