On Wednesday 7 June, we were very pleased to welcome  Alexander Knight to Brentwood Cathedral for a lunchtime Organ Recital.

Alexander played here for us in February this year, when he had just recently been awarded the prestigious

Fellowship Diploma from the Royal College of Organists (FRCO).

Today, there was a change of the published program, and, amongst other works, Alexander played some wonderfully complex  Messiaen, allowing him to demonstrate both his superb musicality and his technical mastery of the Cathedral organ.  

We hope that Alexander will be able to return to the Cathedral in the future

Alexander Knight combines a bustling freelance career as an organist, pianist, conductor, continuo player, music producer and teacher with his posts of Organist and Director of Music at St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, and Musical Director for the Canbury Singers and the Treble Chefs. At St Mary Magdalene, Alexander has developed the choir in quality, size and scope, founding the Choral Foundation which provides support for choral and organ scholars and a junior choir, and establishing the monthly music recital series.

Alexander is currently studying at the Royal College of Music for a Master in Performance in organ with David Graham and Andrew Dewar, with his second study in piano with Nigel Clayton. In 2018, Alexander was awarded his Associateship Diploma from the Royal College of Organists, winning the Sawyer/Durrant, Sowerbutts/Durrant and Samuel Baker prizes.

Alexander previously held posts at Southwark Cathedral as Harry Coles Organ Scholar, Queens’ College, Cambridge as Organ Scholar, and St Mary’s Whitchurch as Organist and Director of Music. Alexander read Music at Cambridge University between 2012 and 2015, performed and toured with Queens’ College Choir around the UK, Hong Kong, France, Budapest and Switzerland, and featured on their album ‘For The Wings of a Dove’. Whilst at Cambridge, he performed with CUMS Chorus, conducted by Sir Stephen Cleobury, and with pop band Bastille as part of the Centenary Queens’ May Ball.

Alexander has given organ recitals at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral St George’s Hanover Square, as well as at Kensington Palace in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex in a fundraising event for Shooting Star Children’s Hospice. Other recent highlights include conducting Vaughan Williams’s ‘Dona nobis pacem’ and ‘Five Mystical Songs’ with the Prince Consort Sinfonia and Canbury Singers, and performing Vaughan Williams’s ‘Sea Symphony’ with the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Adrian Partington. Later this year, Alexander is looking forward to conducting Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, as well as continuing to perform organ and piano recitals around the UK.