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Gerard Gillen has been titular organist of Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral since 1976 and was professor and head of music at Maynooth University from 1985 to 2007. A first class honours graduate of UCD, Oxford University and the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Antwerp (where he gained the Prix d'Excellence, the highest award for instrumental performance), Professor Gillen has an international reputation as an organ recitalist and has given over 1,000 recitals throughout Europe, the Middle East, America and Australia, performing at such prestigious venues as the Royal Festival Hall in London, King’s College Cambridge, St Thomas in New York, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, St Thomas in Leipzig, St Bavo in Haarlem, as well as cathedrals and major recital venues in Antwerp, Bratislava, Bruges, Brussels, Copenhagen, Freiburg, Ghent, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Košice, Lübeck, Luxembourg, Madrid, Malaga, Oslo, Paris (Notre Dame and La Madeleine), Pittsburgh, Potsdam, Rome, San Francisco, Tallinn, Turin, Warsaw, Zaragosa etc. He has also been a member of international competition juries in Ann Arbor, Dublin, Graz, London and Oxford.

Gerard Gillen was founder of the Dublin International Organ and Choral Festival (now ‘Pipeworks’) of which he was artistic director from 1990 to 2000. In 1984 he was conferred with a Knighthood of St Gregory (KCSG) by the Vatican. Other honours include the John Betts Visiting Fellowship at Oxford (1992), and in December 1996 he was nominated the classical winner in Ireland's TV National Entertainment Awards, the first and only organist to be so honoured. In 2006 he was made a Chevalier des Ars et des Lettres by the French Government for his contribution to French music, and in 2007 he was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Pontifical University of Maynooth for his services to church music. In 2010 he was awarded the Belgian Government honour of ‘Officer of the Crown’ and the Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst, 1e Klasse (Cross of Honour for Science and Arts) by the Government of Austria. He was also elected to Fellowship of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (FRIAM). His CD of the organ music of César Franck and Flor Peeters on the English LCS HiRes label was one of Norman Lebrecht’s special Christmas recommendations for 2009.

Max Reger (1873–1916)

Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor (1899)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Andante in F KV616

Samuel Wesley (1766–1837)

Prelude and Fugue in C minor (1826)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

Chorale Partita ‘Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig’ BWV768

Frank Martin (1890–1974)

Agnus Dei (1965/1966)

Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983)

Toccata, villancico y fuga op.18 (1947)