SUMMER ORGAN RECITAL

Recitalist: Joseph Beech, Durham Cathedral.

Join us for the 3rd of our series of 6 Organ Recitals. Tea & coffee in the church from 10.30am. Free entry with retiring collection.

JOSEPH BEECH

Sub Organist, Durham Cathedral

Praeludium in G                                                                                           Nicolaus Bruhns

(1665–1697)

Soll es sein                                                                                    Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

(1562–1621)

Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot, BWV 678                                    Johann Sebastian Bach

(1685–1750)

Prière                                                                                                                  César Franck

(1822–1890)

Prelude and Fugue in F minor, Op 7, No 2                                                      Marcel Dupré

(1886–1971)

Prelude on Ecce jam noctis                                                                              Healey Willan

(1880–1968)

Cortège Académique                                                                                  Ernest MacMillan

(1893–1973)

Joseph Beech is the Sub-Organist of Durham Cathedral, a position he has held since 2019. He is the principal accompanist and assistant director of the Cathedral Choir, and shares in all aspects of the recruitment and training of the choristers.

Joseph is a prizewinning graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he was a scholarship student of David Titterington. As a student, Joseph performed in most of London’s major venues, won the Academy’s inaugural Dorothy Cooper organ competition (2016), and gained the Licentiateship teaching diploma. Upon graduating with a first-class degree, Joseph was presented with a Regency Award for ‘notable achievement’. In 2022, he was elected to Associateship of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his ‘significant contribution’ to the music profession.

Joseph successively held organ scholarships at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle; HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace; the London Oratory; and St Paul’s Cathedral. Prior to his appointment at Durham, Joseph was Assistant Master of the Music at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh; his organ playing on the choir’s critically-acclaimed 2019 recording of works by Kenneth Leighton was critically acclaimed as “entirely flawless” and “greatly impressive”. He has broadcast regularly as an organist and conductor on BBC Radio 3 and 4.

Aside from his work at the Cathedral, Joseph maintains a busy performance schedule, with recent and forthcoming concerts across the UK, and in the Republic of Ireland, Germany, and Italy, and enjoys dedicating time to organ teaching at Durham University. In his spare time, he is undertaking postgraduate studies in history at the University of Aberdeen.