Brett Leighton

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Brett Leighton is an Australian born, freelance organist and harpsichordist who has lived in Europe for more than 40 years^{[citation needed]} and was Professor of Organ at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, Austria from 1994 until retirement in November 2020. He is featured on four CD releases including Orgel Landschaft Ober-Österreich II (1998),^[1] Brett Leighton an der West-Orgel in Taufkirchen/Pram (1998)^[2] Music for Organ and Zink (2005),^[3] The World's Oldest Organ<ref>"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-04-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) and The Organ of the Stadtkirche St.Marien, Celle https://www.musicaomnia.org/release/the-organ-at-celle-digital-download/. He has three times served on the jury of the competition for Paul Hofhaimer Prize of the City of Innsbruck (2004, 2007 and 2019) and will do so again in 2022 for its twentieth edition.

He was 1977 Student of the Year at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, where his teacher was David Rumsey (1939-2017).^{[citation needed]} Further organ studies took him to Michael Radulescu in Vienna (Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien, 1978-1981), after which he studied the harpsichord with Jean-Claude Zehnder in Basle and Ton Koopman in Amsterdam. His many prizes and awards include the prestigious Paul Hofhaimer Prize of the City of Innsbruck in 1979, which had never been awarded in the competition's ten-year history. Since then, Brett Leighton has been an active recitalist, continuo player and visiting professor in Europe, Japan, Australia, Mexico and the US. His repertoire spans almost all styles with an emphasis on historically researched performance practice. In addition, Leighton has played numerous first performances of contemporary organ and harpsichord works. He has broadcast and recorded CDs as soloist and in ensemble in Europe and Australia. In addition to teaching, Leighton is a regular performer at many European festivals and summer courses and has acted as consultant for the construction of new organs, primarily in Austria.

References[]

Press[]

• Concert reviews in Oberösterreichische Nachrichten: Apr. 13, 2005^{[permanent dead link]}, Jun. 24, 2005^{[permanent dead link]}, Oct. 13, 2006^{[permanent dead link]} (in German)
• Concert announcement in Der Vinschger, calling his music "first-class and legendary" (in German)
• Concert announcement in Österreich Journal, Sep. 3, 2003 (in German).
• Concert announcement in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, Jan. 22, 2005^{[permanent dead link]} (in Italian)
• Concert announcement in El Diario Vasco, Apr. 25, 2006, calling Leighton "one of the great specialists of the baroque repertoire" (in Spanish).