Organist Nicolas Kynaston has Died, Aged 83

Kynaston was a prolific recitalist, recording artist, and pedagogue

The acclaimed British organist Nicolas Kynaston has passed away at the age of 83.

Hailing originally from Devonshire, England, Kynaston was the youngest of seven children. At the age of fifteen he traveled to Italy on a scholarship to study with Fernando Germani at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and then the Rome Conservatorio. Upon his return to England, Kynaston studied with the renowned British organist Ralph Downes at the Royal College of Music.

His first post was as organist of Westminster Cathedral, to which he was appointed at the tender age of nineteen. In 1971, he resigned in order to pursue his flourishing concert career, which saw him give recitals in every major concert hall in the United Kingdom and nearly every country in Europe.

Kynaston also played in several locations less well known for their organs, such as Barbados, Nassau, Ankara, Istanbul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Korea, and the Philippines and undertook six coast-to-coast tours of North America.

He served on the juries of a number of major organ competitions, including those in Southport, St Albans, and London, and was the first English organist to be invited to be on the jury of the Grand Prix de Chartres.

Kynaston's extensive discography was critically acclaimed, with discs receiving 'Best Solo Instrumental Record of the Year' from the Music Trades Association and the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis for his recording in Germany of Vierne's Sixth Symphony.

As a pedagogue, Kynaston taught at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and gave numerous masterclasses overseas.

Our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.