NIGEL POTTS BIOGRAPHY
“The playing is first-rate throughout, with wonderfully assured technique…sheer pleasure for
every possible reason…” The Sydney Organ Journal, Australia
“…clearly inspires the richly talented Nigel Potts to great heights of achievement in his
compellingly splendid playing...” Organists’ Review, UK
Having given recitals spanning four continents, Nigel Potts has become renowned worldwide for
his “sense of expression which never cloys” (The Sydney Organ Journal, Australia), his “broad
command of tonal color” (The New Mexican), the way in which he “handles the organ with an
admirable blend of authority and aplomb” (The New Mexican), and his use of the organ’s
“extensive resources with imagination and taste” (The Journal of the Association of Anglican
Musicians).
Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1972, Nigel Potts’ list of performances includes such
distinguished venues as Westminster Abbey, London, (London debut aged 21); St. Paul’s
Cathedral, London; Notre-Dame de Paris; The Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavík, Iceland; Klagenfurt
Cathedral, Austria; The Riverside Church, New York City; Woolsey Hall, Yale University;
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; Washington National Cathedral, St. Bartholomew's Church,
New York City; the Town Halls of Wellington & Dunedin, New Zealand; The Hong Kong
Cultural Centre and various venues in Australia and Singapore. In October 2009, he will perform
an organ recital at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
An exponent of orchestral transcriptions and a respected champion of 19th & 20th century British
organ music, Nigel Potts is renowned for his “intuitive grasp of the grand British style, and one
can sense his love for this music in his secure technique and in his idiomatic phrasing and
expression” (The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians). In 2003 he performed a series of
recitals across the USA entitled ‘Fanfares and Folk Tunes’~ celebrating Percy Whitlock’s
Centenary. He performed a similar series entitled ‘An Evening with Elgar’ ~ honoring the 150th
Anniversary of Sir Edward Elgar's birth in 2007 and was invited to perform the Elgar Organ
Sonata at the first ever North American Conference of the Elgar Society in Dallas in 2008.
“…one of the best, most subtle readings of ‘Nimrod’ from Elgar’s Enigma Variations I’ve ever
heard” (The New Mexican).
Nigel Potts’ CDs and recitals have been reviewed favorably by critics around the world and have
been broadcast on radio stations in Australia, Iceland, New Zealand and on American Public
Media’s Pipedreams. His transcription of The Walk to the Paradise Garden by Frederick Delius
and the first movement of Sonata in C minor by Percy Whitlock from a recital in Yale
University’s Woolsey Hall have been aired on Pipedreams. His recently released CD British
Fantasies & Fanfares includes the first recording of York Bowen’s complete solo organ works,
including the premiere recording of Bowen’s unpublished Wedding March for Organ.
An advocate of new music, Nigel Potts is the dedicatee of several organ compositions by the
British composer Paul Spicer, including Saraband for any 3rd October (premièred at
Westminster Abbey), March for the Retreat of the Governor of Hong Kong (premièred at the
Hong Kong Cultural Centre) and Fanfares & Dances. He has also commissioned choral music
for his choirs from prominent British and American composers, including the anthem Tu es
Pétrus by Paul Spicer; the anthem Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty and
the hymn tune Saint Peter’s, Bay Shore by Richard Webster; The Christ & Saint Stephen’s Mass
by Robert Lehman, and the anthem Rejoice in the Lord, always by Bruce Neswick.
Nigel Potts studied with Thomas Murray at Yale University and graduated with a Master of
Music Degree in 2002. He holds diplomas from the Conservatorium of Music in Wellington and
Trinity College of Music, London. Whilst living in London he studied Church Music at the
Royal Academy of Music, played for services at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and studied organ with
Jeremy Filsell and John Scott. A recipient of the Gillian Weir Waitangi Foundation Scholarship,
Nigel Potts has held Organ Scholarships at Wellington Cathedral in New Zealand and at
Blackburn and Lichfield Cathedrals in England, where he accompanied the Cathedral Choirs on
broadcasts and tours to Australia and Europe.
Nigel Potts has presented workshops and master classes and has also adjudicated competitions
for the AGO and RCCO in North America as well as in Singapore. As a Rotarian, Nigel has
given annual benefit concerts to raise funds for children from developing countries to have
critical heart surgeries in New York.
He is presently Organist & Choirmaster of Christ & Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, New
York City, where (with Paul Jacobs, Artist in Residence) he oversaw the installation of the new
Schoenstein & Co. organ in 2008. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer of Music at Dowling College,
New York; a National Examiner for the Royal School of Church Music, America; and a board
member of both the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and the St.
Wilfrid Club of New York City.
www.nigelpotts.com
April 2009