Tony Baldwin’s musical talent was nurtured by a culture steeped in history and strong musical traditions. The magnificent cathedrals with their high vaulted ceilings, the polished beauty of the wood choir stalls and altars, and wonderful pipe organs, with worship history and royal support going back hundreds of years – all this creates opportunities that would be hard to find in the U.S. To walk, work, create, and perform in the same places where Handel, Byrd, Tallis, and Howells lived, has to leave one with a mixture of awe, inspiration, humility, pride, and immense satisfaction. To give an organ recital in Westminster Abbey, as Tony has done, playing where some of the greats like Orlando Gibbons and Henry Purcell were once the organists, has to have been one of the thrills of a lifetime. To have the supportive and competitive community and culture of music that esteem contemporary composer / performers like John Rutter and Karl Jenkins must be deeply satisfying.
Antony (Tony) Baldwin was born in London in 1957. He grew up in south London where he was a boy chorister at Southwark Cathedral. He became fascinated by the organ at the age of 10, and decided that his goal was to be a Cathedral organist. During this time he also developed an intense interest in organ improvisation.
Tony at Epiphany Episcopal Church, Vacaville, CA 1995
Tony became an associate of the Royal College of Organists at 17, and gained the FRCO and CHM (choir master) diplomas the following year. He also gained the LRAM in organ teaching. (This Fellowship diploma is equivalent in the U.S. to Fellow of the American Guild of Organists.) In 1975, he became Organ Scholar of Trinity College, University of Oxford, subsequently earning his BA and MA in music from Oxford. While working for his degrees, he conducted the chapel choir and college orchestra. During this time he composed much for the chapel choir. Postgraduate work at the University of Durham followed, during which he continued composing and choir-training. Tony has an intense interest in the music of Herbert Howells, whom he was privileged to meet several times while completing a thesis on his organ works.
Subsequently, Tony embarked on a career in teaching, choir-training and playing the organ. He spent a period teaching in private schools in Devon and Sussex. His friendships with the organists of Exeter and Chichester cathedrals led to more compositions and deepened his interest in organ improvisation.
Tony returned to London in 1983, becoming Director of Music at the American Church in London in 1984, a post he still holds. A feature of this post is the musical oversight of the annual Thanksgiving Service held in St. Paul's Cathedral.
To date, Tony has published nearly sixty works, some choral and some organ. His publishers include Oxford University Press, the Royal School of Church Music, Animus Music, Banks Music Publications of York, and in the US, Paraclete Press, Emerson Music and Sacred Music Press. The new Oxford Book of Flexible Carols, a resource for choirs of all types and sizes, features two of his pieces.
Tony has long had an association with the US. He spent the summers from 1992 to 1996 in Northern California, giving organ and choral concerts and workshops for choir directors, organists, and singers. His organ recitals during those summers have included performances at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Merced, Marysville Presbyterian Church, and Pacific Union College in Angwin.
Tony Baldwin Chorale
The Tony Baldwin Chorale was a group of singers put together initially by Mary Schaefer, from her ties with the Solano Choral Society and churches in the area, and with the connections of Helen Intintoli and David Barthelmess. During those summers the chorale performed under Tony’s direction, singing such works as Requiem by John Rutter, Gloria also by John Rutter, the Requiem by Gabriel Faure, and a program of English choral music through history.
Through the sharing and organization of Mary Schaefer and the gifted directing, performing, and composing talents of Tony Baldwin, the Chorale returns to lift their voices in song. Enjoy our gift to you.