Andrew Kirk has been Director of Music and Organist at St Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol for 20 years. He has responsibility for several choirs at the church. He regularly gives recitals on the famous four manual 1912 Harrison and Harrison pipe organ. He recorded an organ CD Redcliffe Restored which received a Gramophone Award. In the past 5-10 years, his recitals have included Coventry, Derby, Leicester, Blackburn, Gloucester, Llandaff Cathedrals, Tewkesbury Abbey, St Mary’s Warwick and Temple Church, London. 

He was previously Director of Music at St John’s Church, Ranmoor, Sheffield where he directed two choirs. Andrew has also taught class music at three secondary schools, including Lady Manners School, Bakewell. He has been an external consultant for the appointment of Directors of Music in some of the larger churches in the UK. 

Born and educated in Leicester, he won an Organ Scholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford where he studied organ with David Sanger. He spent two years in Western Australia as Assistant Organist at St George’s Anglican Cathedral in Perth. He holds the FRCO Diploma, gaining the Turpin and Durrant prizes for organ playing. 

At the end of April 2023 Andrew is leaving his position as Director of Music at St Mary Redcliffe Church. His final services are on Sunday 30 April; you are warmly invited to attend Choral Evensong at 5.30pm. 

A message from Andrew: 

It’s with a great mixture of emotions that I am leaving St Mary Redcliffe after 20 fulfilling and rewarding years here. It’s now the right time for a change and to pass on the baton to someone else. I will be staying in the Bristol / North Somerset area for the time being, to pursue a freelance musical career in organ playing, and also accompanying and directing choirs. 

It’s been an enormous privilege to have been custodian of this marvellous Harrison & Harrison organ –one of the finest instruments in the UK. I have many happy memories over the past two decades of the Thursday concerts and the players who bring this wonderful instrument to life and make it sing! Thank you for your support of these organ concerts over the years, and please continue to support the concerts next term and beyond. 

Programme

Fanfare – Percy Whitlock 

Suite Modale – Flor Peeters 

Koraal-Scherzo-Adagio-Toccata 

Andantino in Db – Edwin Lemare 

Fantasia in F minor – W A Mozart 

Largo, Allegro, Aria and Two Variations on a theme 

by Michael Festing, arranged by George Thalben-Ball 

Finlandia – Jean Sibelius