Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Gerard Gillen

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Name
  
Gerard Gillen

Role
  
Music performer


Gerard Gillen httpswwwmaynoothuniversityiesitesdefaultfi


Education
  
University College Dublin

Dr. Gerard Gillen is Professor Emeritus in Music at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, having retired from the position of Professor and Head of the Music Department of that university at the end of September 2007. He came to NUI Maynooth in 1985, previously having been a lecturer in music for sixteen years at University College, Dublin. Professor Gillen has overseen the expansion of the Music Department in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, for example, new diplomas in Music Technology and Church Music. He also directed the University Choral Society from October 1985 until April 2007.

Contents

Gillen is a first-class honours graduate of University College Dublin and Oxford.

Professor Gillen's interest lie in the areas of Catholic church music, organ building and performance practice. He was honoured as the John Betts Fellow in 1992 at the University of Oxford and since 1993 he has been chair of the Irish Episcopal Commission's Advisory Committee on Church Music.

He is also the general editor (with Harry White of UCD) of the bi-annual Irish Musical Studies.

Books

  • Gerard Gillen (with Harry White), ed. Irish Musical Studies I: Musicology in Ireland (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990)
  • Gerard Gillen (with Harry White), ed. Irish Musical Studies II: Music and the Church (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1992)
  • Gerard Gillen (with Harry White), ed. Irish Musical Studies III: Music and Irish Cultural History (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1995)
  • Gerard Gillen (with Andrew Johnstone), ed. Irish Musical Studies VI: A Historical Anthology of Irish Church Music (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001)
  • ‘Contemporary Organ Building in Ireland’, The Organ – An Encyclopaedia, eds. D Bush & R. Kassel (New York: Routledge, 2006) pp. 271–273
  • ‘An Instrument for Harmony: How should we think about Church Music?’ Religious Life Review, (March/April 2006), pp. 116–123
  • ‘The Pipe Organ: a centuries-old heritage’, New Liturgy, Summer, 2006, pp. 15–16
  • ‘Children in Irish Liturgical Life’, New Liturgy, Spring, 2005, pp. 11–17
  • ‘Towards a Definition of ‘’Good’’ Liturgical Music’, Anail Dé: The Breath of God – Music, Ritual and Spirituality, ed. Helen Phelan (Veritas: Dublin, 2001) pp. 189–200
  • ‘Irish Catholics and Hymns’, The Furrow (October 2000), pp. 548–556
  • ‘Seoirse Bodley', 'Brian Boydell', 'Jerome de Bromhead', 'John Buckley', Edward Bunting', 'Charles Petrie', 'Roman Catholic Church Music', The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture, ed. W.J. McCormack (Basil Blackwell: Oxford, 1999)
  • ‘Looking back, looking forward’, New Liturgy, Summer, 1998, pp. 5–11
  • ‘William Telford and the Victorian Organ in Ireland’, Irish Musical Studies II: Music and the Church, ed. Gerard Gillen and Harry White (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1992), pp. 108–129
  • ‘Church Music in Dublin, 1590–1900’, Four Centuries of Music in Ireland, ed. Brian Boydell (London: BBC, 1979), pp. 23–28
  • ‘17th-century Organ Music: New Editions’, The Musical Times, cxvi (1975), pp. 172–173
  • ‘New Organ Music”, The Musical Times, cxv (1974), pp. 981–982
  • ‘The Organ Music of Franz Liszt, The Musical Times, cxiii (1972), pp. 182–183
  • ‘Hassler and Contemporaries’, The Musical Times, cxiii (1972), pp. 1017–1018
  • ‘New Organ Music”, The Musical Times, cxiii (1972), p. 711
  • ‘The Rieger Organ in St. Michael's Church, Dún Laoghaire', Music and Liturgy, I ii (1975), pp. 98–100
  • 'The Training of Organists and Choirmasters', The Furrow, (Music Supplement), (1969).
  • 'The Organ in Bray, Co. Wicklow: an organist’s evaluation’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, v (1981), pp. 121–126
  • Performance

    Gillen enjoys an international reputation as an organ recitalist and has given recitals at such prestigious international venues as the Royal Festival Hall, London, McEwan Hall, Edinburgh, Ulster Hall, Belfast, cathedrals of Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Canterbury, Notre Dame, Paris, St Stephen's, Vienna, Salzburg, Regensburg, Freiburg, Hamburg, Lübeck, St Bavo, Haarlem, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Copenhagen, Madrid, and Tallinn.

    Gillen was founder-chairman of the Dublin International Organ & Choral Festival and was the festival's artistic director from 1990–2000. He was also consultant to the National Concert Hall in Dublin on the installation of the Hall's Kenneth Jones concert organ in 1991 and remains one of the Hall's honorary organ curators.

    Gillen was the organist at the Statio Orbis mass of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress held in Croke Park, Dublin on 17 June 2012.

    Broadcast Recordings and Discography

    Gillen has had many recitals recorded and broadcast by various national radio networks: RTÉ, BBC, RTF (France), BRT (Belgium), Nord Deutsche Rundfunk, Mittel-Deutsche Rundfung, RAI, Estonian National Radio, and American Public Service Radio.

    Gillen plays the 1869 Walker organ of St Audoen’s, Dublin, LP NIR, 1971. He also played Buxtehude and Walther on the Chapel Organ of Trinity College, Dublin, LP NIR, 1972. He has made many other recordings.

    Selected Public Recitals 2000–2010

    2010

    Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church

    2009

    Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church

    2008 Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church 2007

    Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church

    2006

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 27 September

    Spišska Nova Ves (Slovakia), Festival, 13 September

    Kosice (Slovakia), Philharmonic Hall, 12 September

    Dublin, National Concert Hall, recital as part of NCH’s 25th anniversary celebrations, 8 September

    New York, St Patrick’s Cathedral, 29 August

    Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 20 August

    Carrick-on-Shannon, Water Music festival, 13 August

    Castletownshend, Summer Music Festival, 3 August

    Monasterevan, Hopkins Summer School, 28 July

    Lyon, St Bonaventure Basilica, 7 May

    Paris, La Madeleine, 30 April

    Luxembourg, Dudelange Celtic Festival, 9 March

    2005

    Ruzamberak Catholic University, Slovakia, Conference Recital, 21 October

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 7 September

    Wales, St Davids Cathedral, 24 August

    Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 21 August

    Graz, Cathedral, 14 August

    Legnica (Polaqnd), Cathedral, 19 July

    Wroclaw, University Church, 17 July

    Swieta Lipka, Festival Recital, 15 July

    Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral, 11 May

    Waterford, Christ Church Cathedral, 10 March

    Oxford, The Queen’s College, 23 February

    2004

    Dublin, National Concert Hall, 5 December (with Palestrina Choir)

    Sardinia, Cagliari, S. Francesca de Paulo, 23 October

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 8 September

    Hamburg, Wohltorf Kirche, 4 September

    Schleswig Holstein, Neuenkirchen, 3 September

    Copenhagen, Vor Frue Cathedral, 28 August

    Denmark, Randers Church, 26 August

    Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 15 August

    Bratislava, St Martin’s Cathedral, 30 June

    Tullamore, Church of the Assumption, 22 June

    Bratislava Castle, official recital to mark the accession of Slovakia to the EU, 4 May

    Dublin, St Patrick’s Cathedral, 28 April

    London, St Lawrence Jewry (City), 16 March

    Rome, S. Paulo entre la mura, 29 February

    2003

    Dublin, National Concert Hall, 10 December (with Palestrina Choir)

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 24 September

    Zilina (Slovakia), S. Barbera, 4 September

    Piestany (Slovakia), Concert Hall, 2 September

    Trnava (Slovakia), Cathedral Festival, 28 August

    Kosice, St Elizabeth Cathedral, 26 August

    Leipzig, St Thomas’s Church, 23 August

    Torgau, Schloss und Stadt Kirche, 22 August

    Potsdam, Erlöserkirche, 20 August

    Schleswig Holstein, Sieseby Kirche, 18 August

    Limburg/Lahn, Cathedral Series, 16 August

    Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 10 August

    Tullamore, Church of the Assumption, 17 June

    Dublin, St Agatha’s, North William Street, Inaugural Recital, 15 May

    2002

    Limerick, Redemptorist Church, 20 November

    Turin, Basilica Santa Rita, 28 October

    Fossano, Cathedral festival, 27 October

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 4 September

    Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 18 August

    Killaloe, Shannon Festival, 20 July

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, International Organ festival Vesper, 28 June

    Augusta, Georgia, Distinguished Artists’ series, 2 May

    Hannibal, Missouri, First Presbyterian Church, 28 April

    2001

    Dublin, National Concert Hall, 27 September

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 19 September

    Schleswig Holstein, St Peter-Ording, 9 September

    Schleswig Holstein, Keitum/Sylt, 5 September

    Hamburg, Harsefeld, Kirche, 3 September

    Copenhagen, Garrison Church, 29 August

    Schleswig Holstein, St Laurentius, Itzehoe, 25 August

    Denmark, Randers Church, 21 August

    Galway, Cathedral of the Assumption, 16 August

    Denmark, Bornholm, Rønne Church, 10 August

    Strasbourg, St Pierre-le-Jeune, 15 July

    Vienna, Stefansdom, 11 July

    Sens (France), Cathedral, 8 July

    Munich, University Church, 26 June

    Cork, St Finbarr's Cathedral, 22 May

    Frankfurt/Main, St Nikolai (Bergen-Enkheim), 23 March

    2000

    Dublin, National Concert Hall, 12 December (with Palestrina Choir)

    Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 6 September

    Wexford, Rowe Street Church, 6 August

    Mühlhausen, Divi Blasii Church, 1 June

    Limerick, Mary Immaculate College, 3 May

    Kilrush, St Senan's Church, Inaugural recital, 28 April

    Copenhagen, St David's Church, 27 February

    Copenhagen, Kastrup Church, 26 February

    References

    Gerard Gillen Wikipedia