|
The New Zealander choral conductor and organist, Thomas Wilson held positions at both the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Cathedrals in Hamilton, New Zealand being appointed Director of Music at Wellington Metropolitan Cathedral at the age of 18. In 2003, he moved to the UK to begin postgraduate studies in organ (with Professor David Titterington) and musicology at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where his research interests included the organ music of Dietrich Buxtehude and the choral music of J.S. Bach. He, graduated in 2006. Whilst at the Academy he won prizes for organ playing and improvisation and performed in several high profile concerts, accompanying ’cellist Steven Isserlis at the Wigmore Hall and giving a concerto performance in Neresheim Abbey with the Royal Academy Baroque Orchestra.
Thomas Wilson was appointed Organist and Assistant Director to the Choir of Ealing Abbey and subsequently Assistant Organist at Westminster Cathedral (since October 2004), where the famed cathedral choir sings daily Vespers and Mass. He subsequently became Westminster Cathedral’s first lay Precentor, with responsibility for planning and coordinating the Cathedral’s Liturgy, in addition to his duties as Assistant Organist. At Westminster he regularly accompanied and directed the Westminster Abbey Choir, performed in the cathedral’s Grand Organ Recital series, toured with the choir and featured as organist on a recording of music by Victoria and Girolamo Frescobaldi on Hyperion label. He was also responsible for the liturgy of Installation of Vincent Nichols as Archbishop of Westminster.
From February 2010 until the end of 2022, Thomas Wilson was Director of Music at St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, where he established a regular schedule of daily choral liturgical services, and oversaw the development of the busiest and most comprehensive Cathedral Music program in Australia. He conducted the Cathedral Choir in concerts and festivals throughout Australia, Belgium, and Italy, broadcast on Channel 7, ABC television and radio, recorded several CD's, and collaborated with some of Australia’s finest orchestras, choirs, and solo artists. In 2010 the Cathedral Choir recorded a service of Christmas Carols for television broadcast by the ABC.
His work with the Cathedral Choir gained national attention through a busy schedule of services, recordings, broadcasts, tours and concerts, most notably during the Cathedral’s Centennial Festival, during which he conducted performances of J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor BWV 232 and Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with the Wellington Sinfonia, as well as Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto with organist David Titterington. Under Thomas’ direction the choir toured Italy, singing at services and concerts in Rome, featuring as guest choir at the Epiphany Mass in St Peter’s Basilica. His final engagement with the Cathedral Choir was New Zealand’s first period-instrument performance of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, presented as a liturgical reconstruction.
Thomas Wilson is the Founding President and Master of Chapel Music for the School of Sacred Music in New York City. In 2013 he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. |
