Roger Sayer is at the forefront of British choral and organ music. A former organ student at St Paul's Cathedral, Roger was Prize Winner at the 1989 St Albans International Organ Competition and won all the organ prizes at the Royal College of Music. Since then, he has been constantly in demand both as a recitalist and accompanist, and his playing takes him to many parts of the world.

 

His recent tours and events have included recitals in Italy, Germany, Holland and Denmark, a major tour of Australia, a live recital at Temple Church broadcast on BBC Radio 3, opening the 2018 Summer Organ Festival at Westminster Abbey and the release of two new recordings for Priory and Signum records. Upcoming highlights encompass recitals in Germany, Denmark and Sweden, and, in the UK, Bath Abbey and Durham Cathedral, as well as conducting a tour to Holland in Summer 2019 with the boy choristers of the Temple Church Choir. He will also be recording soundtracks for a Sony video game, and collaborating with saxophonist Mark Lockheart and composer John Ashton Thomas in a new album, Salvator Mundi, to be released this autumn.

 

Roger Sayer's work as organist has also extended into the film world, with his most recent performance as organ soloist for Hans Zimmer's Oscar nominated score for the motion picture Interstellar. Roger later went on to perform the work live with composer Hans Zimmer in a special concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, which was attended by the film's director, cast and supporters, including Christopher Nolan, Jessica Chastain, Professor Brian Cox and Professor Stephen Hawking.

 

As a recording artist, Roger has released a number of CDs of solo organ music. His latest recordings, The Complete Organ Sonatas of Josef Rheinberger and The Grand Organ of Temple Church, have received several 5* ratings and outstanding reviews. The Grand Organ of Temple Church has been recommended on MusicWeb International: ‘Roger Sayer’s playing has a vitality and vibrancy about it which positively exudes brightness and clarity of thought.’. Likewise, his Rheinberger CD was recently Recording of the Month on MusicWeb International: ‘Roger Sayer proves himself to be an apt interpreter of Josef Rheinberger’s wonderful music; his playing is superior to that of Jürgen Sonnentheil on CPO in the two sonatas that he performs on his disc. The excellence that Sayer shows in those two sonatas is continued on into the other eighteen, so much so that I hope that Priory gives him an opportunity to record further recitals of the composer’s music.’.

 

In addition to his organ playing, Roger Sayer is also an acclaimed choral director with some of the UK's finest choirs. After founding the Rochester Cathedral Girls’ choir, Roger joined Temple Church in 2013 as Musical Director and has since created an impressive portfolio of broadcasts, concerts and recordings. The choir’s most recent CD, The Temple Tradition, received a 5* review in Choir and Organ Magazine: ‘The richly voiced young choristers of the Choir of the Temple Church are a joy to listen to, their unison singing nothing short of miraculous, and Roger Sayer draws from his singers outstanding phrasing and subtle nuances of tone’. Under his direction, Temple Church Choir has broadcast numerous times on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, and undertaken several international tours of the USA, Holland, Singapore, Australia and Germany. In 2017, Roger conducted the choir at the St Albans International Organ Festival 'Three Choirs' concert, alongside the choirs of St Paul's Cathedral and St Albans Abbey, and initiated a new youth choir of Boys and Girls at Temple Church, which gave its debut in November.

 

Outside of Temple Church, Roger Sayer worked regularly with the London Symphony Chorus for ten years, and now works as External examiner for RCM organ final examinations. In his capacity as Accompanist and Deputy Chorus Director, Roger has collaborated with many of the world's leading conductors and soloists. 

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Biography courtesy of Roger Sayer.org https://www.rogersayer.org/biography Copyright 2017

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Tansy began her musical studies as

the Parry Wood Organ Scholar at

Exeter College, Oxford, following

which she gained her MMus with

Distinction in Choral Direction and

Church Music from the Royal

Academy of Music, winning all the 

major prizes for Choral Direction.

Following this, Tansy worked with

Finchley Children’s Music Group and

became Director of Music at

Belmont, Mill Hill Prep School, and St Paul’s Church, Mill Hill.

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Between 2004 and 2008 Tansy served as Visiting Lecturer and Director of the Chamber Choir at London City University, before becoming Director of Music at St George’s College, Weybridge in September 2007. Under Tansy’s direction, St George’s College Chamber Choir achieved unprecedented national success, winning both the BBC Songs of Praise Senior School Choir of the Year Competition and the Barnardo’s National Choir Competition in 2012, and being a finalist in the BBC Competition in 2016. Choral engagements included concerts at the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, and St Martin-in-the-Fields, performing on BBC television and Radio 3 and 4, and directing four CD recordings.

 

Between 2012 and 2018 Tansy was Organist and Director of Music at St Mark's, Hamilton Terrace, NW8, prior to taking up her posts in Peterborough; Tansy is also Musical Director of Peterborough and Ramsey Choral Societies. Additionally she works for the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) as a Course Director and Singing Examiner, and has worked on programmes broadcast on ITV and Channel 4, and BBC Radio 2, 3, and the World Service.

 

Tansy is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and in February 2013 she was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for distinguished service to the choral music and education professions. In November 2013 she was appointed Subject Specialist Inspector for Music by the Independent Schools’ Inspectorate (ISI), in 2014 was elected President (2015-2016) of the MMA, the UK's largest and longest established association of music teaching professionals, and in 2017 gained the NPQSL qualification in Senior Leadership.

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Biography courtesy of Peterborough Cathedral https://www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/home/musichome/worship-and-music/music-staff.aspx Copyright - 2015