David Briggs
Having been educated at Solihull School he was organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge from 1981-84. At just 17 he was awarded his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) a prestigious award for professional organists. Briggs was also Principal Viola of the National Youth Orchestra.
Whilst at King's, he toured Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany with the college choir. In 1983 he received the Countess of Munster Award to study Interpretation and Improvisation with Jean Langlais in Paris, with whom he furthered in his interest in the art of improvisation by his transcriptions of the recordings of the late Pierre Cochereau. Transcribing the remarkable improvisations from Cochereau's cassette recordings took eleven years. Briggs' subsequent performances and recordings of them earned him his initial acclaim. He was also the first British organist to win the Tournimire prize for improvisation at the St Albans International Organ Festival.
On leaving King's, he took up the post of Assistant Organist at Hereford Cathedral where he also took over the directorship of Hereford Chamber Choir and String Orchestra.
He was appointed Organist and Master of the Choristors of Truro Cathedral in 1989, before moving to the similar post at Gloucester Cathedral in 1994. While at Gloucester he oversaw the rebuilding of the organ which included the installation of the Divided Pedal. This allows the Pedal Board to be 'split', meaning the pedal stops sound on the lower section, the upper section can be set to reproduce the sound of any of the manuals. Briggs also oversaw the installation of this system on the Father Willis organ of Truro Cathedral in its rebuild in 1991. In May 2002, Briggs retired due to ill health and was replaced by Andrew Nethsingha, who had previously also succeeded him at Truro.
David is still Organist Emeritus at Gloucester Cathedral, and gives regular masterclasses at the Royal Northern College of Music and Cambridge University. He spends most of his time as a very busy international concert artist, composer, and organ advisor. He now lives in New York.
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