Geoffrey Webber - Keyboard
Geoffrey Webber is an organist, conductor and music historian. In addition to his work at Hampstead he is General Editor of the Church Music Society and Associate Artistic Director of Armonico Consort. His musical education began as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral and he read music at Oxford University, initially serving as Organ Scholar at New College under Edward Higginbottom. He later became Assisting Organist at Magdalen College and University Organist, and also served as Acting Organist for spells at both New College and Magdalen. As a doctoral student he researched music of the German Baroque period, and his publications in this area include North German Church Music in the Age of Buxtehude (OUP 1996) and a web-based resource for the Royal College of Organists on Buxtehude's organ music. He is also the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Organ (CUP 1998), a general study of the history and repertoire of the instrument, and his most recent publication is a study of early Anglican church music for a German music encyclopedia. From 1989-2019 he worked in Cambridge as Precentor and Director of Studies in Music at Gonville & Caius College, releasing many CD recordings with the Caius choir of varied repertoire from first-millenium chant to music by contemporary composers such as Judith Weir and Julian Anderson (mainly on the Delphian label). During this time he also taught extensively for the Faculty of Music, and from 2011-19 he served as Course Principal and Director of the MMus degree in Choral Studies which he helped establish, which attracted students from all over the world. As an organ recitalist he enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire (recent venues include Bradford Cathedral, St John's College, Cambridge, and St Michael's Cornhill where he performed Petr Eben's dramatic cycle Faust) and he has also composed a chorale prelude for The Orgelbüchlein Project (which recently completed a task left unfinished by J.S. Bach) drawing inspiration from the music of Arnolt Schlick and György Kurtág.