U.K. Organist Paul Wright in Concert Feb. 25 at TU's Sharp Memorial Chapel

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Paul Leddington Wright, an internationally renown British organist, conductor, composer and arranger, will perform works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Reger, Guilmant, Howells and Elgar on the recently upgraded Schantz pipe organ in The University of Tulsa’s Sharp Memorial Chapel.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 3:00 p.m., Feb. 25, 2007, in Sharp Memorial Chapel. A reception will immediately follow in the Chapel’s Buford Atrium.

At the age of 15, Wright was appointed conductor of the Maidenhead Schools’ Orchestra as well as organist and choirmaster of the Maidenhead Methodist Church. That same year, he became the youngest person ever to play England’s largest concert organ in London’s Royal Albert Hall. While at Cambridge, Wright conducted the University Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He continued his theatrical activities, working as a musical director in London’s West End and as musical director of the first national tour of Lloyd Webber’s "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat."

Since 1984, Wright has served both full and part-time as organist and director of music at Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, England, and as conductor and arranger for the BBC TV “Songs of Praise.”

As an arranger and composer, Wright works on new projects for the BBC, in addition to commissions for choirs and orchestras worldwide. He has been conductor of the Saint Michael’s Singers at Coventry Cathedral and has a close working relationship with the English Symphony Orchestra and SouthBank Sinfonia. He has also worked with the RPO, Halle, and BBC Philharmonic orchestras; the BBC Concert Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, and City of London Sinfonia.

For more information, please contact Sharp Chapel, 918-631-2546.