Katherine Dienes (Guildford Cathedral) to perform in Alton

Katherine Dienes (Guildford Cathedral) is to give an Organ Concert at St Lawrence Parish Church, ALTON on Tuesday 6 May 2008 starting at 8.00 pm.

Katherine Dienes BA BMus FRCO was appointed Director of Music at the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick, in September 2001 following four years as Assistant Organist and Director of the Cathedral Girls Choir at Norwich Cathedral.
She was born and educated in Wellington, New Zealand and studied for a BA in Modern Languages and a BMus at Victoria University, Wellington. Katherine was Organ Scholar at Wellington Cathedral from 1988 to 1991 when she was appointed Assistant Organist there. Other musical activities in Wellington included playing for several choral groups, acting as Assistant Conductor of the Wellington Youth Choir and appearing as soloist with Wellington Youth Orchestra.

She is active as a composer, and one of her compositions was performed in the presence of the Queen in Auckland in 1990. Treble Clef Music Press publishes her treble voice repertoire in the United States. Recent commissions include music for the Norfolk and Norwich annual Royal School of Church Music area festival, an Easter anthem for the Kapiti Choir, New Zealand, an Easter treble voice anthem and Magnificat for Treble Clef Music Press, and a Mass setting commissioned by Norwich Cathedral.

In 1989 she was appointed a National recording Artist for Radio New Zealand and she has won several awards for her playing, including the prestigious New Zealand Gillian Weir Waitangi Scholarship. Katherine came to England in 1991 to take up the post of Organ Scholar at Winchester Cathedral and Assistant Organist at Winchester College.

During the past ten years, Katherine has given several organ recitals in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Bermuda and Singapore. She was the soloist for a performance of the Guilmant Organ Symphony at the Southern Cathedral Choirs’ Festival in 1993, and in April 1995, she was the soloist in a performance of the Poulenc Organ Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 1997, she was the soloist for a performance of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, with the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes. She is an extra player with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Katherine has studied choral training with David Hill, Organist and Master of the Music at Winchester Cathedral and Chorusmaster to the Bach Choir in London, and Patrick Russill at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she took part in the Church Music Studies Course. She has just completed studying for an MA in Music and Liturgy at Leeds University.

Her work at the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick, broadly involves directing both the Gentlemen and Boys of St Mary’s Choir and St Mary’s Girls’ Choir, planning and leading all music in worship (there are four choral services each week as well as many extra services and special events), developing the music programme at St Mary’s, and directing the Parish Choir, Collegium.

Other interests include languages (her BA is in French and German), travel, reading and swimming. She is a Knight of the Grand Order of Vitéz and a Knight of the Order of St Ladislau (Hungary).

Katherine is married to Patrick Williams, Librarian to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Director of Viva Voce, a Norwich-based chamber choir, and Guest Conductor of the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra and the Chester Philharmonic Orchestra. Katherine and Patrick have a daughter, Hannah, born in December 2001.

The Society was delighted to hear the news that Katherine has been appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers Guildford Cathedral starting Jan 08.