Spotlight Media

Please note - Anne completed this Spotlight interview with Harry just three days before his death, and we offer it as a tribute to his life and great work. It was fascinating to read in your autobiography ‘Not Half Bad’* about your career, your colleagues and the society in which you worked. Your memory is astonishing ... or did you keep detailed diaries throughout your life? The only diaries I kept were appointment diaries. They cover a long and diverse career, first as teac

You have had a long career in church music, winning great distinction both as organist and choir director, and now you are primarily known world-wide as a composer. Take us back to the beginning – when and how did your commitment to music begin? I grew up in a small country town, beginning piano lessons aged four. When I was 14, I moved to a country secondary school where I sang in the local cathedral choir. It was there that I first become obsessed with the organ and choirs.

What prompted you to start learning the organ? During the 1980s I was studying piano at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester and at that point had not really heard the organ. When I was growing up, there was a harmonium, not an organ, in my church, and the same piece was played during Communion every single week… I can still hear it in my head now! Anyway, I became friends with some of the organists at college and got to hear all the pieces they were learn