International organist will have skills tested

Christ's College Choir has a high musical standard.

Music lovers in Hawke's Bay and beyond will have an opportunity to witness musical art in its most creative form when David Briggs visits in July.

Briggs is not only an internationally-acclaimed concert organist and composer, his reputation as an improviser ranks him with the very best.

His skill will be tested in a concert in Waiapu Cathedral where he has agreed to improvise an organ symphony in three movements based on a theme handed to him at the organ console in an envelope. The theme will be taken from a well-known musical.

David Briggs will improvise an organ symphony in three movements.

Briggs, formerly organist at Gloucester Cathedral, is also known across the globe for his brilliant organ transcriptions of symphonic music by composers such as Mahler, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and Bach.

His Napier concert will include transcriptions from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Mahler's 5th Symphony and Ravel's La Valse. The first half of his programme will also include Bach's Taccata in F, Haydn's Three Pieces for Musical Clocks and Cesar Franck's Choral No. 3 in A minor.

Briggs' schedule includes more than 60 concerts a year spanning several continents.

He is deeply committed to making organ music vibrant for future generations.

His performances are renowned for their musicality, virtuosity and ability to excite and engage audiences of all ages. His concert in Napier's Waiapu Cathedral is at 4pm, this Sunday.

The second concert in the Musical Extravaganza is being given by the choir of Christ's College, from Cambridge, England.

The choir is one of Cambridge's finest mixed-voice ensembles. It comprises 28 members selected by audition and each is expected to be of a high musical standard.

The choir has a broad concert repertoire and the Napier programme will present music ranging widely over three centuries including secular items. They will be performing at 7.30pm on Tuesday next week in Waiapu Cathedral.

-Tickets for both concerts will be available at the door and at the booksellers Beattie and Forbes. There is a special half-price deal for those attending both concerts.