MSI Premiere Composer, J.J. Hutchings (England)

J. J. [Jamie John] Hutchings is an organist, and also active as a music teacher and choral composer. Most recently, he has played for All Saints' Day masses at St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican and Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. In Feburary he will follow this with a tour to Paris with the Chamber Choir of Framlingham College, including works by Allegri, Tallis, plainsong, Tchaikovsky, negro spirituals, Native American folksongs, and one of his own works. The Choir will be singing at St Séverin, St Germain-des-Prés and La Madeleine.

     JJ's works have been sung in various cathedrals in England, including Canterbury, Chichester, Coventry, Lincoln, Norwich (Anglican), the parish churches of St James, Great Grimsby and of St Michael and All Angels, Framlingham, and also the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Further afield, his music has been performed on mainland Europe, in the USA and South America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and more recently, Korea.

     His compositions, organ playing and his popular hymn arrangements have been performed on BBC Radio 2, local television and radio: he has also played the restored organ at the Royal Albert Hall for the Schools' Prom. He has a great love of plainsong, Vierne's organ symphonies, Florence, Salzburg, and the composers Bach, Britten and Shostakovich. As a performer he is in demand as an organist, pianist, tenor, counter-tenor and director.