Photograph used by permission of Gavin Argent.
Regarded as one of Britain's most outstanding concert organists and teachers, Margaret Phillips made her début at the Royal Festival Hall and soon gained an international reputation as a soloist, playing at concert halls and cathedrals throughout Europe and in the U.S.A., Australia and Mexico. Alongside her busy concert career, she has been Professor of Organ at the Royal College of Music in London for the last ten years.
From 1997-99 she was President of the Incorporated Association of Organists and for 20 years she was a member of Council of the Royal College of Organists.
Margaret regularly gives masterclasses both at home and abroad, and has been a jury member for organ competitions such as those held in St Albans (UK) and Odense (Denmark). Her critically acclaimed recordings include 2-CD sets of the organ works of Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns and Stanley, and her CDs of Bach’s ‘Eighteen’, ‘Schübler’ Chorales and the Canonic Variations received 5-star reviews in Goldberg Magazine and Choir & Organ. A further recording of Bach, including the Orgelbüchlein, was released in 2007, to enthusiastic reviews.
Recent performance highlights have included the first concert for many years on the Flentrop organ in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, concerts on the historically significant organs in Trinity College (Cambridge, UK), Grauhof and Naumburg (Germany), Haarlem (Holland), Marmoutier (France), and the ancient ‘swallow’s nest’ organ in Sion (Switzerland). She was the first British artist to play an organ concert on the new organ in the recently rebuilt Frauenkirche in Dresden. Teaching on courses in Cambridge, Canford-at-Sherborne, Haarlem and Sion have added to her busy schedule.
In 1994, Margaret Phillips and her husband founded the English Organ School and Museum in former chapel premises in Milborne Port, Somerset, where they have a collection of organs by English organ builders from the eighteenth century to the present day. EOS aims to provide facilities for learning and playing the organ, to promote the understanding and appreciation of the organ as a musical instrument, and to preserve a modest part of Britain's organ heritage.
January 2008
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Margaret Phillips
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