Director of Music
George Chittenden (www.georgechittenden.com) is the Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he organizes a busy and exciting programme of music, the majority of which is through choral services, and extra-liturgical concerts. He is also the Fleming Galway Organ Fellow at Knox College, based within the University of Otago. George is both Associate of the Royal College of Organists, and a concert organist. Prior to his arrival in Dunedin, he was based in the United States of America, employed as Artist-in-Residence/Assistant Organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford, CT. In addition, he was Organist to the Anglican Singers – also a Connecticut based choir. George moved to New England in 2010, leaving the post of Assistant Organist to the Cathedral Church of St Andrew in Aberdeen, Scotland; his appointment at Aberdeen Cathedral was made in April 2006, at which time he became the youngest cathedral organist in Great Britain. Whilst in Aberdeen, he founded the ‘Cathedral at Noon’ concert series, which became a major feature in the musical life of the city.
Alongside this, George was also the David Gordon Memorial Senior Organ Scholar to King’s College Chapel at the University of Aberdeen, and a teacher of piano, organ voice, to over one-hundred students. In addition to working as teacher, George has himself been taught by several high-profile organists, David Flood, Anne Marsden-Thomas, Roger Williams, Gerard Brooks, Kevin Jones and most recently, Peter Stoltzfus Berton. During the last fifteen years, he has also been employed as an organist / accompanist at several other churches in the UK, including Holy Trinity Church, Folkestone, and St Paul’s Church, Sandgate.
George is highly active as an accompanist, and has played the organ for choir tours throughout many of the major choral establishments across the British Isles and the USA. He also has an active solo recital career, and, being proudly half-Swedish, performs regularly in Scandinavia. He has recently performed to high acclaim in Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden, which is among Scandinavia’s most prolific organ recital venues. Recently, George has performed in Ghent Cathedral, Berlin’s Ludwigkirche, the Königsberger Dom in Kaliningrad and London’s great St. Paul’s Cathedral; he looks forward to playing in Russian Vladivostok, among other places, over the coming year.
Away from cathedral music, George is studying for a PhD in the field of Scandinavian musicology, assessing how the Nazi occupation in Scandinavia affected developments in classical composition. He is also himself a composer, writing both church music and experimental composition. George is a committed football fan, supporting Celtic FC in the United Kingdom, Malmö FF in Sweden, and above all, his much revered Swedish national team. George is a keen traveler, a historian, a committed poker player and a fan of beer.