APRA award-winning British Australian organist, Joseph Nolan, has been described by ABC Radio National as “one of the great organists of our time” and by Limelight (Australia) as “indisputably one of the world’s finest organists.” Critics have consistently praised Nolan’s artistry, with BBC Radio 3 Record Review admiring his “miraculous playing,” and Gramophone Magazine (UK) commenting “Joseph Nolan cannot be matched for his towering technique, vivid virtuosity, and inspired interpretive insight”.

In a review of the Nolan/Signum disk-Midnight at St Etienne Du Mont, Paris-American Music Magazine, Fanfare, writes “Joseph Nolan has attracted widespread attention as the Australian counterpart of Cameron Carpenter….displaying jaw-dropping virtuosity, with both finger-work and footwork that leave one astonished at his dexterity.”

Renowned for his interpretations of Widor’s complete organ works for Signum Classics, Nolan’s recordings have been acclaimed by Gramophone Magazine as “the current yardstick for all Widor recordings”. Musicweb International describes the Widor cycle as “the benchmark set”, while Classicalsource heralded the release as “a landmark”, awarding it five stars and Editor’s Choice. In a comparative review of the Widor symphonies featuring some of the most illustrious figures past and present in the organ world, The New Criterion, New York, remarked, “The Nolan set in particular is very fine”.

The cycle has won two Gramophone Critics’ Choice awards and garnered a wealth of five-star reviews from respected publications including BBC Music Magazine, The Criterion (New York), MusicWeb International, and ClassicalSource. Nolan’s recordings have a global reach, broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Pipedreams USA, Radio France, Radio Sweden, and ABC Classic. Notably, Nolan’s recording of Widor’s Symphony No. 5 at La Madeleine in Paris was named Apple Classical’s Editor’s Choice, chosen over 169 other entries.

As an exclusive artist with Signum Classics—a winner of Gramophone Magazine’s Label of the Year—Nolan’s discography features some of the world’s most revered organs in iconic venues such as St Sulpice, La Madeleine, and St Etienne du Mont in Paris; St Sernin, Toulouse; St François de Sales, Lyon; St Bavo, Haarlem; St Ouen, Rouen; Buckingham Palace, London; and Eglisé St Martin, Dudelange, Luxembourg.

Limelight Magazine has awarded Joseph recordings three Editor’s Choice awards. Joseph is also the first-and only organist-to have been awarded Limelight’s coveted Recording of the Month for his disk entitled-Midnight at St Etienne du Mont-the Parisian ecclesiastical home of Maurice Duruflé. Musicweb International selected Joseph’s recording of German Romantic repertoire from St Bavo Haarlem as a Recording of the Year with legendary critic, Marc Rochester, hailing the recording as ‘The Organ Disc of the Decade”.

In January, 2025, Joseph completed the significant challenge of recording the complete organ works of Charles-Valentin Alkan during an intense four-night session at Eglisé St Martin in Dudelange, Luxembourg. The inaugural volume of the Alkan cycle is set for release by Signum Classics in March 2026.

Nolan is also highly sought after as a soloist with major orchestras. His Sydney Opera House debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, joined by renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and conductor David Robertson, drew accolades from Limelight, The Sydney Morning Herald, and ArtsHub, who declared “Nolan has an unequivocally fine ear for French repertoire…..I have never heard the Sydney Opera House organ sounding better.”

In 2024, Nolan made his debut as a featured artist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, performing in the world premiere of Mary Finsterer’s Stabat Mater at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne. This performance subsequently won Performance of the Year and Work of the Year at the 2024 Arts (APRA) awards in Melbourne.

Joseph has appeared as concerto soloist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at St Peter’s Cathedral, Canberra Symphony Orchestra at Llewellyn Hall, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, Queensland Symphony Orchestra at QPAC, West Australian Symphony Orchestra at Perth Concert Hall, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, where he performed with Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero and conductor Alexander Shelley on a national tour.

Most recently, Nolan made a highly successful debut as a featured soloist in the 2025/2026 Singapore Symphony Season at Victoria Hall in October 2025.

Joseph’s formative years were shaped at The Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with Professor Richard Popplewell, won the Canon Bark prize for most promising organ student, graduated with First Class Honours for his BMus recital at Temple Church, and pursued postgraduate studies with Marie Claire Alain in Paris, supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Hattori Foundation.

Following being appointed to Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in 2004, Joseph also performed at Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace, including giving the inaugural concert celebrating the refurbishment of the Grand Ballroom Organ in Buckingham Palace. Joseph holds the honour of being the first organist to release a commercial recording of the Grand Ballroom Organ at Buckingham Palace for Signum Classics.

In 2008, Nolan was recruited as Master of Music at St George’s Cathedral in Perth, Western Australia, by the Dean of the Cathedral, Dr John Shepherd (now Dean Emeritus). Nolan was entrusted with the ambitious task of cultivating a world-class Cathedral music program while continuing his international performance and recording career. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Perth, Nolan established the Cathedral Consort and St George’s Cathedral Concert Series, building up choral standards that enabled Nolan to lead the St George’s Cathedral Consort in works such as Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra at Perth Concert Hall in 2019, broadcast live on ABC Classic.

Nolan has also led the Cathedral Consort in many Australian and West Australian premieres such as Monteverdi Vesper’s with period instruments, Pachelbel’s Vespers, and Alexander Levine’s The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom.

Christopher Martin Jenkins, the legendary cricket commentator for BBC Radio’s Test Match Special, and chief cricket correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and the The Times, wrote in his autobiography “A Cricketing Life”—”The present musical director, the organ recitalist, Joseph Nolan, has raised standards to exquisite levels and made it more easily possible for the fortunate congregations in a faraway city to experience that sense of the infinite that is the essence of faith”.

Under Nolan’s leadership, the Cathedral Consort has performed at the Perth Festival, for Musica Viva, and collaborated with UK groups, The Hilliard Ensemble, The Academy of Ancient Music, and The King’s Singers. Gloria, a collaboration with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, St George’s Cathedral Consort, and contemporary dance group Co3, conducted by Nolan, received unanimous five-star reviews and won the 2023 Australian Performing Arts Mainstage award.

In April 2024, Nolan conducted a concert version of Gloria—this time featuring Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Dixit Dominus—at Perth Concert Hall, a performance voted as one of Australia’s top ten concerts of 2024 by Limelight. Nolan has also conducted the West Australian premiere of Mary Finsterer’s Stabat Mater, with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and St George’s Cathedral Consort at Winthrop Hall, UWA, in April 2025. Limelight awarded the concert five stars writing Nolan led “an extraordinary performance of an extraordinary work.” The concert was broadcast by ABC Classic in May 2025.

In recognition of Nolan’s significant contribution to French music, The Government of France honoured Joseph Nolan with the medal of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016. The University of Western Australia awarded Nolan the prestigious higher doctorate, the Doctor of Letters, in 2018. His career has been featured in major interviews and articles on ABC Radio National (Australia), Gramophone, Choir and Organ, The Organ, The Age (Sydney), Classical Music, and The Australian.

In January 2026, Nolan will record a commercial album for Signum Classics at the world-famous Berliner Dom, home to the renowned 1905 Sauer Organ. Future engagements will see Joseph Nolan make his debut as conductor with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the New Zealand Festival in Wellington and return as a featured soloist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in four concerts at Melbourne Town Hall.

David Goode is one of the UK’s leading organists. He was organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge and Sub-Organist at Christ Church, Oxford, and was for 17 years Organist at Eton College. He is now a busy freelance recitalist, accompanist, continuo player and teacher.

He has performed frequently as a soloist at the Proms (including a solo recital in 2006 and being a featured artist in 2011), the Royal Festival Hall (including the re-opening concert in 2014) and Symphony Hall Birmingham, and has toured extensively abroad with concerts throughout Europe, North America, Australia and the Far East. Notable partnerships over the years include the BBCNOW, the BBC Singers and the trumpeter Alison Balsom. His most recent live solo recital for BBC Radio 3 was in 2019.

Amongst many recordings across 30 years, he recently released a much-admired set of the complete organ works of Bach for Signum Records (“This series is notable for the flair, clarity and

spontaneity that Goode brings to this timeless music” Gramophone; ***** 5 Stars BBC Music Magazine). His various Reger recordings have also been warmly received, and more recent projects have included music by John Pickard for BIS (‘magnificently assured and enviably concentrated’, Gramophone) and works by Locklair with the choir of Royal Holloway for Convivium Records.

A distinguished teacher over many years, he was on the jury for the 2017 St Alban’s International Competition. He has composed extensively, with recordings including those by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge; his Blitz Requiem was premiered at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2013.

Dr Naji Hakim studied with J. Langlais and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he was awarded seven first prizes. He is a licentiate teacher in organ from the Trinity College of Music in London and won ten first prizes at international organ and composition competitions. In 1991 he was awarded the Prix André Caplet from the Académie des Beaux-Arts. At first organist of the Basilique du Sacré- Coeur, Paris from 1985 until 1993, he then became organist of l’église de la Trinité, in succession to Olivier Messiaen, from 1993 until 2008. He is professor of musical analysis at the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, and visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Robert Quinney is Organist of New College, Oxford. In addition to the daily direction of New College’s world-famous choir, his work comprises teaching, lecturing, and examining, as a Tutorial Fellow of the college and an Associate Professor at the University Faculty of Music. He has conducted New College Choir in concert at home and abroad – notably in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and with The English Concert in New York City and at Wigmore and Cadogan Halls in London. Under his direction the choir continues to make recordings for its own label, Novum; the first, a disc of Symphony Anthems by John Blow, was shortlisted for a 2017 Gramophone Award: ‘an assured synthesis of elegant musicality, judicious ear for contrapuntal detail and informed scholarship’.
He maintains a parallel career as a solo organist, and is a prolific recording artist: his discs of organ music by J.S. Bach, Elgar, Dupré, Wagner and Brahms (and several CDs with Westminster Abbey Choir and The Sixteen) have been widely acclaimed. In February 2017 he made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall with an all-Bach recital, and later in the same year appeared for the first time at the BBC Proms, playing organ music by Bach and Mendelssohn.
Robert Quinney read music at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar. After four years as Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, he became Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey in 2004. While at the Abbey he performed on concert tours to the United States, Australia and Russia, at several televised services including the Marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. In April 2013 he moved to Peterborough Cathedral, where he was Director of Music for 16 months. Between 2009 and 2014 he was Director of Oundle for Organists, whose residential courses continue to attract young organists from all over the world.

Jeremy Filsell enjoys a concert career as one of only a few virtuoso performers on both the Piano and the Organ. He has performed as a solo pianist in Russia, the USA and throughout the UK and has appeared regularly at St John’s Smith Square and the Conway and Wigmore Halls in London. His Concerto repertoire encompasses Mozart and Beethoven through to Rachmaninov (2nd and 3rd Concertos), Shostakovich and John Ireland and in recent years, he has recorded the solo piano music of Carl Johann Eschmann, Eugene Goossens and the two Sonatas of Liszt’s pupil Julius Reubke. In the piano music of Herbert Howells and Bernard Stevens, Classic CD magazine commented that “he does not attract for his virtuosity but for his ability to make the music unfold with irresistible logic and clarity: music-making of the highest calibre.” He is pianist with the London-based Burghersh Piano Trio and performs regularly with Oliver Lewis (Violin), with whom he has recorded discs of Elgar, Ireland, Ferguson and Goossens for Guild. With Michael Bundy (Baritone), two discs of Mélodies by Widor, Vierne and Dupré are due for release by Naxos.
Jeremy Filsell has recorded for BBC Radio 3, USA and Scandinavian radio networks in solo and concerto roles as both a pianist and organist and, as an organist specifically, has a discography comprising over 20 solo recordings for labels Signum, Guild, Gamut, Herald and ASV. Gramophone magazine, writing on the series of 12 CDs comprising the premiere recordings of Marcel Dupré’s complete organ works for Guild in 2000, praised his performance as “one of the greatest achievements in organ recording…Filsell’s astonishing interpretative and technical skills make for compulsive listening … truly distinguished, compelling and unquestionably authoritative performances; Filsell has phenomenal technique.” In 2005, Signum released a 3-disc set on the famous 1890 Cavaillé-Coll organ in St. Ouen Rouen of the complete organ symphonies of Louis Vierne. These were BBC Radio 3’s Disc of the Week in September of that year.
Jeremy studied as a music scholar at Oxford University, then as a post-graduate pianist under David Parkhouse and Hilary McNamara at the Royal College of Music before completing a PhD at Birmingham Conservatoire researching aesthetic and interpretative issues in the organ music of Marcel Dupré. Over the course of his career, he has taught piano, organ and academic studies at Cranleigh, Eton and the London Oratory School, given masterclasses at universities and summer schools in both the UK and USA, served twice on international competition juries and, until recently, held lectureships at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and London’s Royal Academy of Music. He lives currently in the USA and is Principal Organist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., one of the largest churches in the world and the flagship Catholic Church in North America.

James Vivian has been part of the music department at the Temple Church since 1997 and was appointed Director of Music & Organist of the Temple Church in 2006. Previously, he worked closely with the then Director of Music, Stephen Layton, as Sub-Organist and subsequently as Organist. At the Temple Church, James presides over the famous four-manual Harrison & Harrison organ and directs the professional choir of men and boys about whom the Daily Telegraph commented, ‘The Temple Church Choir is a formidable force, finely honed and blended’. The choir’s latest CD was released on the Signum label in 2010. As an organist, he is known as much for his outstanding interpretation of the solo repertoire as for his colourful and inventive accompanying; he is one of England’s most sought-after young organists. James Vivian was educated at King’s College, Cambridge where, for four years, he worked closely with its world-famous choir as organ scholar. Before Cambridge, he was acting-Assistant Organist. of Lincoln Cathedral. He was a prize-winner in the Fellowship examination of the Royal College of Organists, and was awarded a scholarship to study the French organ repertoire with Marie-Louise Langlais in Paris. James has appeared in many Festivals (including the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, The Three Choirs Festival, the Lincoln Festival in New York City, and Festivals in Bermuda, Germany and Italy), and has played recitals and concerts throughout the world (including Japan, Brazil, South Africa, USA, and Europe). He has broadcast on many national radio stations as a soloist, and has recorded with labels such as Decca, Priory, Signum, Sony BMG, EMI and Hyperion. James has also been an examiner for the The Royal College of Organists.
James was Artistic Adviser to the hugely successful year-long 2008 Temple Festival; highlights included conducting a new and fully-staged production of Dido & Aeneas in London which was highly praised: ‘…an uncommonly satisfying, very beautiful account of Dido and Aeneas’ (Opera). He is co-founder of two professional instrumental ensembles, The Temple Players and Temple Brass, as well as the Temple Singers, with whom he presents concerts at the Temple Church.