JONATHAN Bielby is one of the area’s best known and most accomplished musicians.
Next week, Jonathan will be in Huddersfield to give a milestone recital at St Paul’s Hall.
Wednesday’s lunchtime concert is part of a farewell tour as Jonathan is retiring after 40 years at Wakefield Cathedral.
Jonathan has strong Huddersfield connections. He was the first Kirklees Borough Organist, a job he held for 14 years from 1974.
During that time he gave regular recitals on the famous Father Willis organ in Huddersfield Town Hall. He masterminded the highly successful rebuilds of the Willis at Huddersfield and the five-manual Compton at Wakefield.
In 1970 Jonathan took up his present post as Organist and Director of Music at Wakefield Cathedral. He has just taken the cathedral choir to New York to sing services and concerts, with critical acclaim.
His Huddersfield recital at the University has two themes.
All the pieces are by English composers, including two that Jonathan has written, and there is music appropriate for Remembrance Day ( November 11) by Thalben-Ball, Leighton and Walton.
The concert is on November 11 itself at St Paul’s in Huddersfield at 1.15pm.
Doubtless there will be many music fans wanting to say goodbye to a man who is not only recognised as a distinguished solo performer but as an outstanding choral conductor and a fine composer of church and organ music.
