10/09/2026
LUNCHTIME ORGAN MUSIC RESUMES!
Friday 11th September, 1.00pm - 1.45pm
JOHN LONGSTAFF (St Peter's Church, Harrogate)
Admission is free, with retiring collection. All are welcome.
Join us for the first of our 2026-2027 organ concerts featuring the celebrated Harrison & Harrison organ at the Minster. We are delighted to welcome a good friend of the Minster, John Longstaff, to open the series for us, and his programme is as follows:
Fantasia in C minor BWV 562 | J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
Sonata no. 7 in F minor | Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)
i) PRELUDIO Allegro non troppo
ii) Andante
iii) FINALE Grave – Vivo – FUGA Moderato
Romance sans paroles | Joseph Bonnet (1884-1944)
Chanson de Matin op. 15 no.2 | Edward Elgar (1857-1934), arranged A. H. Brewer (1865-1928)
Overture 'Light Cavalry' | Franz von Suppé (1819-1895)
John Longstaff read music and was organ scholar at Girton College, Cambridge, studied conducting at the Guildhall and at the Canford Summer School, and came second in the 1988 Leeds Conductors Competition. He has held full time positions in Kiel, Germany; Northern Ballet; and as Musical Director of Young Opera Venture. He made his conducting début with English National Ballet in 2009, and was until 2011 Artistic Director of the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra. He has been organist at St. Peter’s Church, Harrogate, since October 2003 and was appointed Director of Music in 2012.
John is also a sought-after orchestrator and arranger. For Northern Ballet he has arranged the music for some 18 productions; including Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Great Expectations, Madame Butterfly, and Beauty and the Beast. His arrangement of music by Malcolm Arnold for The Three Musketeers has been recorded on the Quartz CD label. In 2011 he assisted Claude-Michel Schönberg in the editing, orchestration and recording of his ballet Cleopatra. In 2016 he composed a ballet for children, Goldilocks and the Three Bears which was toured throughout the country and shown on CBeebies television. He has made new translations of both Bach Passions with his friend and colleague Andrew Greenan. Coming from a musical family (his father was Assistant Organist at Leeds Parish Church from 1951-1955) he is delighted to report that his most recent engagement was playing the piano for the world première of Act I of his brother Edward's opera The History of Mr Polly at the Tête à Tête opera festival in London.
