Kiwi organist’s career hits winning note
Wellington organist Thomas Gaynor’s already successful career is about to ‘‘rocket to the stars’’.
The 26-year-old won the first and audience prizes in the 2017 St Albans International Organ Competition on July 22.
Held every two years in the historic city north of London, the twoweek long, multi-round competition ended with the three finalists giving a solo recital, then playing a concerto with the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra at St John’s Smith Square in London.
Gaynor is only the second Kiwi to win the competition, after New Zealand-born organist Dame Gillian Weir in 1964.
He won £6000, as well as a range of recital engagements, a contract with an American agent and the opportunity to make a solo recording.
Gaynor took up piano lessons as a 10-year-old but his older sister attended Tawa College, which performed concerts at the Wellington Town Hall, and remembers hearing the national anthem played on its organ.
‘‘I was always so, so excited to hear this ginormous noise coming from one person. It was the theatre of it.’’
His mother found him an organ teacher at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he learned to play. He went on to be honorary sub-organist there, later working as the organist at St Mary of the Angels Church.
Gaynor completed his undergraduate study at the NZ School of Music at Victoria University and is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
He is also the winner of the Bach Liszt Organ Competition in Weimar, Germany, the Sydney International Organ Competition, and the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition.
Douglas Mews, artist teacher in organ at the New Zealand School of Music, says St Albans is probably the most famous organ competition in the English-speaking world.
Winning St Albans launched a huge career for Weir: ‘‘So I imagine Tom’s career, which was already very successful, will be rocketing to the stars now,’’ Mews says.
Gaynor says being the second New Zealander to win the competition is exciting.
‘‘[Weir’s] sort of a beacon for many organists, especially for me as a kid.
‘‘It’s amazing to be sort of walking in her footsteps.’’
Gaynor isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In the next three months he will give two recitals in Melbourne and compete in international competitions in Canada and Tokyo.
He also returns to St Albans for the gala prize-winners’ concert in September.