New Director of Music, Christian Wilson
The College is delighted to announce the appointment of accomplished organist, conductor and academic Christian Wilson as Director of Music at Keble from September. The appointment follows the departure of Chris Bucknall, who will be pursuing his career as a harpsichordist and conductor full-time.
Christian Wilson’s musical life began at Westminster Abbey, where he was head chorister and became interested in the numinous quality and orchestral colour of the organ. He later spent a year as Sub-Organist at Perth Cathedral (Western Australia), before taking up the Organ Scholarship at Christ Church, Oxford. Following a research degree investigating the pre-Reformation English organ, Christian was awarded various prizes and scholarships to study for the solo postgraduate degree at the Musik Hochschule, Stuttgart (with Jon Laukvik and Ludger Lohmann), from where he embarked upon a career as a concert organist. In 2012, he became the eighth person in the world to perform Francis Pott’s epic organ symphony Christus (sometimes considered the “Everest” of organ repertory), with performances in Germany and the UK.
In addition to his role as Organist at the Chapels Royal in the HM Tower of London, Christian is currently Director of Music at Brasenose College, Oxford, and a Lecturer in Music at the University. He has appeared regularly on BBC radio and television as performer or musicologist. Performances have taken him to major concert halls and churches across Europe, the USA, Australia, and South Africa, and his recordings as soloist and accompanist appear on the Naxos, Linn, FHR, Hyperion, Acis Productions and Dutton labels. Recent recordings include Solas with saxophonist Gerard McChrystal (on FHR), organ works from the interwar period, ‘Commotio’ (on Acis), and the organ works of Francis Pott (also on Acis), all of which have been well received. He is currently preparing an academic edition and appraisal of four partbooks owned by Henry VIII and composed by Tudor composer Nicholas Ludford in the 1520s.
