He started his career as a cathedral organist as Assistant Organist at Hereford Cathedral before becoming the organist of Truro and Gloucester Cathedrals. Heavily influenced by Jean Langlais and Pierre Cochereau, Briggs is regarded as one of the world's finest improvisors, and now works as a concert organist. He is also a composer of choral and organ music and has transcribed many orchestral works for solo organ, as well as many of Cochereau's recorded improvisations. His daughter is the composer Kerensa Briggs.
Early life and training
The Chapel of King's College, Cambridge (pictured August 2013), where Briggs was an organ scholar from 1981 to 1984.
Briggs was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, to John Briggs (d. 1979), an engineer (and cellist), and his wife Jane (a violinist), who had met in 1957 while playing in the Birmingham Hospitals Orchestra.[1] Some of Briggs's earliest memories are of hearing his grandfather, Lawrence Briggs, improvise on the organ at St Jude's Church, Birmingham, where he was the organist for over 40 years.[2]
In 1983 Briggs received the Countess of Munster Award, allowing him to study in Paris with Jean Langlais. Over 12 lessons − half in Langlais's apartment and half on the Cavaillé-Coll organ at Sainte-Clotilde − Briggs studied both repertoire and improvisation. In 1986 Briggs began transcribing cassette recordings of Pierre Cochereau, the organist of Notre-Dame de Paris from 1955 to 1984, whom Briggs had never met but heard once during mass at the cathedral in 1980. Briggs worked on the transcriptions for 11 years, estimating that it took about four hours to transcribe one minute, and returned to the task many years later during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]
On leaving university, Briggs was appointed as Assistant Organist at Hereford Cathedral, where he also took over the directorship of Hereford Chamber Choir and Hereford String Orchestra.
He was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers of Truro Cathedral in 1989, before moving to the similar post at Gloucester Cathedral in 1994. While at Gloucester he oversaw the rebuilding of the organ which included the installation of the "divided pedal". This allows the pedal board to be "split", meaning that the pedal stops sound on the lower section, and the upper section can be set to reproduce the sound of any of the manuals. Briggs also oversaw the installation of this system on the Father Willis organ of Truro Cathedral in its rebuild in 1991. During his time at Gloucester, he conducted the Three Choirs Festival (in 1995, 1998 and 2001).[2]
Considered one of the finest concert organists and improvisors of his generation, Briggs currently teaches and performs around the world. He gives regular masterclasses at the Royal Northern College of Music and Cambridge University, among others. He is also the composer of over 60 works, mostly for choir and organ.[1]
From 2012 to 2017, Briggs was Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral Church of St. James in Toronto, Canada. His responsibilities included giving celebrity recitals, playing regularly at services, composing liturgical music for the Cathedral and working on the establishment of a vision for the music programme, including the design and installation of a new organ or organs and relevant acoustical enhancements.
Briggs has been married twice. With his first wife, Elisabeth Baker, he had two daughters: Kerensa (a composer) and Miriam (a singer-songwriter).[5]
He moved to the United States in 2003 and has lived in both New York City and Ipswich, Massachusetts.[2] In 2004 he married Margaret Nimocks, whom he had met at Coventry Cathedral (where his uncle was a lay clerk) in 1980,[2] adopting her daughter Eloise.[6]
Compositions
Choir and organ
Truro Eucharist (1990), SATB and organ
The Music Mountain (1991), SATB, soprano and tenor soloists and 2 organs
Jubilate Deo (1998), SATB, soprano soloits and organ
O Thou Who Art Unchangeable (1999), SATB, two soprano soloists and organ, commissioned by Virginia Wesleyan University
Matin Responsary (1999), SSAATTBB for Gloucester Cathedral choir
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (2000), SATB, tenor solo and organ, commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford
Messe pour Notre-Dame (2002), SATB and 2 organs, commissioned by the choir of Keynsham parish church, Bristol
The Rising (2003), SATB and organ (based on an old Celtic prayer), commissioned by the choir of Church Street United Methodist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee
Hosanna to the Son of David (2003), SATB and organ, commissioned by the choir of Kirk-in-the-Hills, Bloomfield Hills
When in our music God is glorified (2003), trebles and organ (with optional trumpet), commissioned by the Bristol Cathedral girls choir for their 10th anniversary
Christ's Peace, commissioned by the Rosengren family in celebration of 35 years of marriage
Music, SATB setting of a poem by Walter de la Mare, commissioned by the Britten Singers, Hereford
Ave Maria, TTBB and organ, commissioned by the lay clerks of Blackburn Cathedral
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis 'The Truro Service' (2004), commissioned in thanksgiving for the life of John Taylour
Caedmon's Hymn, SSAATTBB for Carlisle Cathedral Festival
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for Jesus College, Cambridge (2008)
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for St Davids Cathedral (2008)
Messe pour Saint-Sulpice (2010), SATB and organ, commissioned by the choir of All Saints, Northampton
Choir and orchestra
Te Deum Laudamus (1997), SATB chorus, soprano and tenor soloists, full orchestra, commissioned for the Three Choirs Festival
Creation (2000) SATB chorus, soprano solo, full orchestra
Te Deum Laudamus (2003), TB choir, 2 organs, flute, oboe, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, harp and strings, commissioned for the 150th anniversary of St Benedict's Abbey, Subiaco, Arkansas
Atlanta Requiem (2003), SATB, soprano, tenor and bass soloists, flute, oboe, trumpet, harp, glockenspiel and timpani
St John Passion (2005), SATB, soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, Evangelist (tenor), Jesus (bass), organ and orchestra, commissioned by the Church of Kirk-in-the-Hills
Festival of Psalms (2023), SATB, brass quitet and percussion (composed with Kerensa Briggs)[8]
Organ
Marche Episcopale (1999), commissioned by the Incorporated Association of Organists
Transcription of the Improvised Fugue/Toccata on 'I Vow To Thee My Country' (2000), improvisation by Briggs at the reopening recital on the Gloucester Cathedral organ, commissioned by Mark Batten, organist of Birmingham Oratory
Variations on 'Veni Creator', (for organ duet), commissioned by Elizabeth and Raymond Chenault
Symphony No. 5, The Lark Ascending, The Wasps: Overture, 5 Variants of Dives and Lazarus (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
Berceuse à la mémoire de Louis Vierne, Suite de Danses Improvisees, Triptique Symphonique, Cantem toto la Gloria, Variations sur Venez Divin Messie, Improvisations sur Alouette, gentille Alouette, Two Improvisations on La Marseillaise, Scherzo Symphonique, Air ('Trimazo') from Suite Française, Gigue ('Compagnons de la Marjolaine'), Bolero sur un theme de Charles Racquet, Entree (Les offices du Dimanche) and Mission Universelle (Improvisations on St Matthew's Gospel) (Pierre Cochereau)
Other
Fanfare for Wells (2002), organ, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones and cymbals (a two-minute fanfare (in the style of Marcel Dupré') for use immediately before Hubert Parry'sI was glad), commissioned by the Wells Cathedral voluntary choir
Chempinesca (2004), for piano duet, in celebration of Beryl Chempin, teacher at the Birmingham Conservatoire
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