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A dedicated church musician, Stuart Forster is well known both as organ soloist and accompanist, as well as conductor, teacher,
choral trainer, organ consultant, composer and arranger. He has been Director of Music and Organist at Christ Church, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, since 1999, where he was appointed at the age of
27.
At Christ
Church, Mr. Forster directs three choirs (Adult, Youth and Evensong),
and provides the liturgical accompaniment, pastoral work, and organization required to build the music program and related
areas of the parish. He founded the Evensong Choir in 2000, and this group has enjoyed invitations to numerous prestigious
ecclesiastical establishments, including Washington National
Cathedral and St. Thomas ’ on Fifth Avenue in New
York .
Since arriving at Christ
Church, Mr. Forster has composed more than fifty arrangements
of hymns and anthems, a congregational setting of the mass, and several original anthems and psalm chants. Publishers
and reviewers are responding to these with enthusiasm. His most recent premičre was Rejoice in the Lord always, an
anthem for SATB choir and organ. He also teaches organ performance and accompaniment, and his current students range
from a choir school graduate to scholars at Harvard University. Mr. Forster has frequently
acted as consultant to churches facing the choice between rebuilding their old organ or installing a new one, and was the
driving force throughout the study and capital campaign that yielded a new Schoenstein Organ for Christ Church.
Mr. Forster maintains a rigorous concert career
throughout both hemispheres, and works regularly with such organizations as The American Guild of Organists and The Royal
School of Church Music. He has served as co-Chair of the Young Organists’ Initiative, which promotes organ-playing
by gifted young musicians, and as a member of various Executive Committees. In New South Wales, Australia, he was the editor of Newsclef, the newsletter of
the local branch of the Royal School of Church Music Australia.
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Mr. Forster’s work has been published in several
professional journals in England, the United States, and Australia. Original research has included
his article, “The Application of the Barnes Tempering System to the Organ Works of J.S. Bach,” published in The Sydney Organ Journal (1996). His landmark organ transcription of Dvořák’s
Ninth Symphony, “From the New World,” was published by Éditions Chantraine of Belgium. Most recently, Paraclete Press published his motet O taste and
see. Mr. Forster’s recordings include a CD on JAV Recordings #113 (including the Dvořák symphony) in
the “Great Organ Builders of America” series, and regular radio broadcasts throughout Australia and
the United States.
As Organ Scholar at St. James’ Anglican Church,
King Street, Sydney,
Mr. Forster developed his liturgical accompaniment skills under the guidance of Peter Jewkes and Walter Sutcliffe. After
arriving in the United States in 1996, Mr. Forster worked with Robert Lehman
as Fellow in Church Music at Christ Church,
New Haven, Connecticut;
he served concurrently at Yale University as accompanist to various choruses and
graduate courses, teacher to numerous undergraduate and secondary organ students, and Organist to the interdenominational
Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity
School.
As an undergraduate, Mr. Forster studied organ with
David Rumsey at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, with teaching supplemented by Rosemary Blake, Philip Swanton and Amy Johansen.
In post-graduate study with Thomas Murray, for which he was awarded full scholarships, Mr. Forster earned two degrees from
Yale University, the Faculty Prize from the
Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and the Julia R. Sherman Prize for excellence in organ playing. Other study has included
musical styles from plainsong to jazz, conducting and voice, as well as a degree in Economics at the University of Sydney.
Mr. Forster is also a Fellow of Trinity College
of Music, London; other scholarships that he has held include the University of Sydney Organ Scholarship (awarded
twice), the Alice Bryant Organ Scholarship (for two terms of three years each), the Ruth and Paul Manz Organ Scholarship and
the Robert S. Baker Scholarship. Other prizes and awards received by Mr. Forster include the coveted Scarf Foundation
Award and the 1994 Sydney International Organ Competition.
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