Christopher Wrench

Christopher Wrench (born 1958 in Brisbane, Australia) is a renowned organist and lecturer.^[1][2]

Education

Wrench attended Brisbane Grammar School, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and undertook postgraduate studies in Vienna at the Vienna Conservatorium and then at the Hochschule für Musik (with Michael Radulescu).^[3][4]

Awards

Wrench has gained considerable success as an organist in international competitions winning the St. Albans (Audience Prize) and Odense, Denmark (First Prize, 1992).^[3]

Career

Wrench returned to Australia in 1991 where he became Lecturer in Organ at the Queensland Conservatorium.^[3] He appears regularly as a recitalist throughout Australia and Europe and has performed as soloist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. One review of a performance of Wrench in 2005 recorded,

"Christopher’s was the last of three, all featuring the music of Bach, presented as part of the 4MBS Festival of Classics. The nature of the music, filled with Bach’s focus on the Almighty, was an intense affair, marked with Wrench’s marvellous musicianship, an abiding sense of architecture and, it seems paradoxical to say amidst such rigour, an expressive freedom of phrasing."^[1]

Another review recorded,

"Christopher Wrench, arguably Brisbanes finest organist, played the organ for this piece, as well as providing a triumphant version of Brahms' great Chorale Prelude and Fugue on "O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid" (Oh sadness, oh heartfelt pain), with its aching harmonies and spine-shivering cadences."^[2]

Wrench is heavily in demand and combines his work as performer and teacher with his passion for liturgical music in his position as Director of Music at St. Mary's Anglican Church, Kangaroo Point in Brisbane.^[5]

Garnisons Kirke (Garrison Church), Copenhagen, Denmark

Discography

• 2009: J.S. Bach Organ Sonatas, BWV 525–530, Garnisons Kirke, Copenhagen; Melba Recordings^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Review of Christopher Wrench and Piers Lane Concert
2. ^ ^{a b} Review of Christopher Wrench and Canticum
3. ^ ^{a b c} Musical Notes, Kawai Keyboard Series 2007 (MS Word)
4. ^ "Die Musiker in 2006 (The musicians in 2006)" (in German). 2006. http://www.nachtorgel.de/archiv/kuenstler2006.htm. Retrieved 28 June 2008. 
5. ^ St. Mary's Anglican Church, Kangaroo Point
6. ^ J.S. Bach Organ Sonatas, BWV 525–530 (Christpher Wrench)

External links

• Biography at Melba Recordings

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Name	Wrench, Christopher
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Date of birth	1958
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