David Sanger died at his home on Friday
28th May 2010. His website is now a memorial to a great musician,
teacher and friend to many.
David was educated at Eltham
College and the Royal Academy of Music and became well known as an
organ recitalist when he won First Prize in two international
competitions: St Alban's, England in 1969 and Kiel, Germany in 1972.
His teachers included Susi Jeans, Marie-Claire Alain and Anton
Heiller.
He toured many countries as recitalist - Germany, Denmark,
Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Italy, France, Russia,
Iceland, the United States, Mexico and South Korea - as well as giving many
recitals in the British Isles, notably at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert
Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the City of London Festival, the Bath Festival,
the Chester Festival, the West-Riding Cathedrals' Festival, and many similar
occasions. He gave Master Classes in many places including Copenhagen, Stockholm
and Oslo, and was 'Headmaster' of the Church Music Seminar in Bergen for
fourteen years. He was frequently partnered by Hans Fagius from Sweden for Organ
Duet Concerts.
As a recording artist he made over 20 CDs,
all of which received favourable reviews. His debut on the organ was with
Polydor (DG Début Series) with Bach and Franck recorded in Munich. He recorded
the complete organ works of César Franck at the Katarina Church in Stockholm
(before the fire) for BIS. His Meridian recordings of Vierne's Six Organ
Symphonies received wide acclaim and he was close to completing his recordings
of the complete organ works of Bach. The most recent Bach recordings, released
as a triple-CD set after David’s death, were recorded on a historic-style organ
in northern Norway. (These were recorded by Euridice and are distributed in the
UK by Discovery Records).
With Meridian he recorded a selection of trifles by Lefébure-Wély on the recent
Cavaillé-Coll style instrument at Exeter College, Oxford, for which instrument
David also acted as Consultant. Other projects as consultant included
new, rebuilt or restored organs at Bromley Parish Church, Haileybury College, St
Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sheffield Cathedral, Trinity Hall,
Cambridge, Strathclyde University and Leeds Cathedral .
David
appeared in the jury of many international organ competitions: St Alban's,
Paisley, Speyer, Biarritz, Alkmaar, Odense Nűrnberg and Lucerne.
For some years he was professor of organ at the Royal Academy of
Music in London, and chairman of the organ department there from 1987-89.
Between 1989 and 1997 he was a Consultant Professor at the RAM. He was guest
professor for a period of two years at the Royal Danish Academy of Music,
Copenhagen. He had been a Visiting Tutor in organ studies at the Royal Northern
College of Music, and was a teacher of organ at Oxford and Cambridge
Universities. He had many successful students at international competition
level, including two winners at the Calgary International Organ Competition. He
was President of the Royal College of Organists from 2009 to 2010.
From time to time, he composed music
for organ, as well as for strings and choirs.
He wrote an organ tutor in two volumes for beginners, entitled
Play the Organ, which has become the most widely used in Britain in recent
years.
He ran courses for advanced students in the Cumbrian Lake
District, including tuition on the Bevington organ
installed there.
David's hobbies included racquet sports, walking, swimming and
gardening.
A more detailed account of David's life, written by Peter Sanger,
is available here.
