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Richard Webster is a composer, church
musician, choral conductor and organist of wide renown. He is in
demand for newly commissioned anthems, organ and instrumental works,
liturgical music and hymn tunes, and travels extensively to direct
hymn festivals, choral workshops and perform organ recitals. His hymn
arrangements for brass, percussion, organ and congregation are
performed in churches and concert halls throughout the
English-speaking world. The Canadian Broadcasting Company perennially
features these hymns on their Easter and Christmas broadcasts. His
settings have also been televised on BBC’s “Songs of Praise,” the most
widely viewed religious music program in the world. His current and
recent commissions include:
Richard's works are published by Augsburg Fortress, Church Music Society, Church Publishing, Selah and Advent Press. He has written articles on church music for The American Organist, The Diapason, Chicago Tribune, The Living Church and the Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians, and is a contributing author to Leading the Church’s Song, published by Augsburg. Currently the Associate Director of Music and Organist at Boston's historic Trinity Church on Copley Square, he directs the Trinity Choristers, who will make their first tour to England in August 2010, with residencies at Ely and Chichester Cathedrals. Richard is Music Director of Chicago's Bach Week Festival, an annual concert series performed by some of the Midwest’s most celebrated musicians, now in its 36th season. Much sought after as a choral clinician, Mr. Webster has led RSCM Training Courses for boy and girl choristers in the U.S. and South Africa. He is a past President of the Association of Anglican Musicians.
As an organist with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, he has performed and recorded with them in works from the
Saint Saens Organ Symphony
to Ives’ Fourth Symphony.
Richard is the Organist and Choirmaster Emeritus of the Parish
Church of Saint Luke in Evanston, Illinois, where, from 1974 to 2003
he directed the Choir of Men and Boys, the Girls Choir, Adult Schola
and the St. Luke’s Singers in a program widely respected and
emulated in the field of church music. The 1998 restoration of the
celebrated 1922 Ernest M. Skinner organ at St. Luke’s was
accomplished under his leadership and is dedicated in thanksgiving
for his ministry. A native of Nashville, Mr. Webster studied organ
with Peter Fyfe, Karel Paukert and Wolfgang Rübsam.
He was a Fulbright Scholar to Great Britain, studying the English
choral tradition as Organ Scholar at Chichester Cathedral under John
Birch.
As a diversion, Richard loves running,
and has completed eighteen marathons, including the Boston Marathon
six times.
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