Join us at the beautiful Notre Dame de France church, 5 Leicester Place, Leicester Square, for a festive pipe organ recital, refreshments and socialising.
During the event, organist Ian Hockley will play some of the favourite music of His Late Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, including music by Mozart, Bach and Handel; plus some music for the Festive season.
Programme
6:45pm: Drinks, including mulled wine & mince pies
7:15pm: Recital, including an explanation by Ian Hockley, of his work for His Late Majesty Sultan Qaboos. This will include a background on why the pieces of music were chosen, along with a brief introduction to the unique pipe organs of Oman.
8:15pm: Recital ends. Refreshments served
8:30pm: Event ends
About the organist/speaker
Ian Hockley is a British organist and he studied at the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK. His organ teachers were David Saint, Peter Hurford and Annette Goerke.
Ian has always combined playing with writing and teaching and has worked in schools in England, where he was Assistant Music Master at Ampleforth College and for three years as Organist and Master of Chapel at Guildford Grammar School, Perth, Western Australia. In 1989 he won the Hurford / Forsyth travelling scholarship awarded by the Royal College of Organists for study in Europe. Ian also holds further diplomas from Trinity College of Music and The Royal College of Organists.
Ian’s performing career has been varied, encompassing a wide variety of styles, and including several hundred appearances in the original production of Andrew Lloyd Webbers’ The Phantom of the Opera. He took up a position with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra in the Sultanate of Oman in 2000 and stayed there until His Late Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said died. Ian has been involved in the Royal Opera House Project in Muscat from the earliest days on many levels, and amongst other things assembled the house’s extensive keyboard collection and conceived and oversaw the installation and tonal finishing of the large new organ in the Royal Opera House, Muscat.
Ian writes from time to time; his biography and edition of the literary works of the French organist and composer Jehan Titlelouze was published in 1996, and has contributed to many journals and publications over the years. Ian still gives occasional concerts overseas when time permits, sometimes in collaboration with the French sopraniste Fabrice di Falco, recently at La cathédrale Saint-Louis des Invalides in Paris as part of a concert for to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Since departing Oman Ian has overseen the installation of the new organ in Cairo Opera House and following two years back in the UK working at Pangbourne College from 2020 - 2022 he is now back in the Middle East and working at Raffles International School in Dubai.