Southwark Cathedral Summer Organ Festival

Welcome to the Southwark Cathedral Summer Organ Festival 2026. A collection of five recitals throughout August.
About this Event

Join us for a summer of organ music as we host five organ recitals on the renowned T.C Lewis organ of Southwark Cathedral

Recitals

3 August | Zuzana Ferjenčíkova (Paris)
10 August | Colin Walsh (Lincoln)
17 August | Simon Hogan (Southwark)
24 August | Martin Schmeding (Germany)
31 August | Jean-Baptiste Monnot (France)

Schedule
Doors open: 6pm
Pre-concert conversation and Q&A: 6.30pm
Concert begins: 7pm
Event end: 8pm

Refreshments will be available to purchase from 6pm.

Accessibility

Please note, currently there are certain areas of the Cathedral that are not accessible to wheelchair users, but we are working to improve our facilities. There is a platform lift to access the Cathedral. The Nave is accessible for wheelchairs from the Millennium Courtyard entrance via a platform lift. There are ramps into the South Transept. Access to the Retrochoir, High Altar and Choir is via the doors from the South Transept, into the Churchyard and back into the Cathedral via the Parish Door.

Visitors who require assistance due to disability are able to book a carer/companion ticket free of charge. Accessible toilet facilities are located on the Ground Floor at the end of Lancelot’s Link, other is in the basement near to the Cathedral Café and can be accessed by the passenger lift. Both toilets need a radar key which can be obtained from a Cathedral team member.

Service animals are permitted.

Monday 3 August | Zuzana Ferjencikova

Programme:

• Adagio and Fugue in C minor KV 546 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (trans. Jean Guillou)
• Grande Sonate Pathétique op. 13 I - Ludwig van Beethoven (trans. Zuzana Ferjencikova)
• from Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) op. 15 - Robert Schumann (trans.
• Zuzana Ferjencikova)
• XII. Kind im Einschlummern (Child Falling Asleep)
• XIII. Der Dichter spricht (The Poet Speaks)
• St Francis of Paola walking on the waves – Franz Liszt (trans. Zuzana Ferjencikova)
• Suite for Thomas Becket, the Saint Archbishop of Canterbury, op. 27 - Zuzana Ferjencikova

Biography:

ZUZANA FERJENČÍKOVÁ is a Slovakian organist, pianist and composer. She was educated from early childhood in alignment with the Russian piano tradition (Oľga Ormisová, Jewgenij Irshai) and pursued organ studies at the conservatory in Banská Bystrica (Milan Hric) and at the universities in Bratislava and Vienna. She has been influenced especially by the teaching of and collaboration with her Maître Jean Guillou (Paris). Holder of numerous prizes in international competitions, 2004 she was the first woman to be awarded the First Prize at the International Organ Improvisation Competition in Haarlem in the Netherlands. From September 2021 she is appointed professor for organ at Codarts University in Rotterdam. She gives master-classes in improvisation, interpretation and transcription, takes part in international organ competition juries and follows an intense concert and recording career. She celebrated her debuts with great success in the most famous concert halls such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wiener Konzerthaus, Berliner Philharmonie, as well as in cathedrals such as Notre Dame de Paris and Cologne Cathedral. As a performer, her focus lie in the Romantic period and the music of 20th century, in particular the œuvre by Franz Liszt, César Franck, Marcel Dupré and Jean Guillou. As a composer, she writes concert pieces for organ, piano and various instrumental formations, and also for the Roman Catholic liturgy. She is author of numerous transcriptions of piano and orchestral works for organ. Since 2022 she is recording artist of the German label AEOLUS. New releases: Jean Guillou Vol. 1: « Symphonic poems ». Jean Guillou and Franz Liszt, Van den Heuvel organ at St. Eustache (Paris). Jean Guillou Vol. 2: « Colours and Shadows ». Jean Guillou and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jean Guillou/Detlev Kleuker organ in Chant d'Oiseau, Brussels (Belgium); Gonzales/Klais/Guillou organ at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille, Lille (France). « Passions ». Organ transcriptions by Zuzana Ferjencikova (Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt), Seiffert/Sinua organ at St. Peter und Paul, Ratingen (Germany).

Monday 10 August | Colin Walsh (Q&A with Peter Wright)

Programme:

• Prelude and Fugue in C minor BWV 546 – J.S. Bach
• Fantaisie in A - César Franck
• Introduction and Passacaglia – Walter Alcock
• Communion from Suite Medievale – Jean Langlais
• Pasticcio – Jean Langlais
• Le Fils from Trois Meditations sur le sainte Trinite – Jean Langlais
• Final from Symphony no 1 – Louis Vierne

Biography:

Colin Walsh’s association with cathedral music goes back nearly fifty years. He has served, in various capacities, St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Christ Church, Oxford ( where he studied with Simon Preston and Nicholas Danby), Salisbury Cathedral( as assistant to Richard Seal) and St Albans Cathedral. He went to Lincoln Cathedral in 1988 as Organist and Master of the Choristers, becoming Organist Laureate in 2003 and Organist Emeritus in 2021.

As an organ recitalist he has played across the UK, most European countries, the USA, Australasia, Hong Kong and Russia. His studies in Paris with Jean Langlais inspired him to specialise in 19th and 20th century French organ music. His recordings as a choral conductor, accompanist and soloist number over forty over many years and various labels. He teaches in Cambridge and elsewhere and is an honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Lincoln.

Monday 17 August | Simon Hogan (Q&A with Helen Smee and Cheryl Frances-Hoad)

Programme:

• Étude Héroïque - Rachel Laurin
• Prelude and Fugue in B - Camille Saint-Saëns
• Organ Sonata in G - Edward Elgar
• Two Voluntaries - Cheryl Frances-Hoad
• Voices of the World - Iain Farrington

Biography:

Simon Hogan is the Cathedral Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral.

Simon was a chorister at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, and it was during this time that he started learning the piano and organ, developing a passion for cathedral music which has stayed with him to this day. Following organ scholarships at Bristol and Salisbury Cathedrals, he moved to London in 2008 to study organ performance at the Royal College of Music, where he subsequently graduated with first class honours. During his final year at the RCM Simon was Organ Scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he regularly accompanied and directed the world-famous choir, and gave recitals on the renowned Willis organ. In 2012 Simon moved to Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where he spent seven years as Assistant Director of Music at Southwell Minster. Here he directed the Minster’s girls’ choir and the Minster Chorale, and played the organ for all services, recordings, tours and broadcasts. Following a period of freelance work during the pandemic, Simon became Organist of St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, in 2021, and moved to his role at Southwark Cathedral in December 2022. Until the end of 2025 Simon was also Organist to the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Simon has studied organ performance with Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, Daniel Cook, David Graham, Robert Quinney and Colin Walsh. Simon is the principal organist for JAM - an organisation which commissions and performs new music for brass, organ and choir by leading contemporary composers - and as such he has enjoyed working with some of the country’s finest ensembles, including the BBC Singers, Gesualdo Six and Onyx Brass, and has premiered works by many of the country’s leading composers.

Monday 24 August | Martin Schmeding (Q&A with Prof John Irving)

Programme:

• Overture from The Flying Dutchmen – Richard Wagner (arr. Edwin Lemare)
• Pastorale – Jean Roger-Ducasse
• Sportive Fauns (Scherzo after Arnold Boecklin) - Dezsö Antalffy-Zsiross
• Mephisto Waltz I S. 514 - Franz Liszt (arr. Martin Schmeding)
• Final al Solfeggio from Partita retrospettiva III Op. 151 - Sigfrid Karg-Elert
• Menuet – Rigaudon from Le Tombeau de Couperin - Maurice Ravel (arr. Martin Schmeding)
• Choral Fantasy on Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott – Max Reger

Biography:

Martin Schmeding, born in 1975 in Minden, Westphalia, studied church music, music education, recorder (concert diploma) and organ (concert diploma), conducting, harpsichord, and music theory in Hanover, Amsterdam, and Düsseldorf. His teachers included Ulrich Bremsteller, Lajos Rovatkay, Dr. Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jacques van Oortmerssen, and Jean Boyer. During his studies, he was a scholarship recipient of the German National Academic Foundation.

After winning eight first prizes at the national "Jugend musiziert" competition, he became a prize winner at, among others, the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Competition in Berlin, the Pachelbel Competition in Nuremberg, the Ritter Competition in Magdeburg, the Böhm Competition in Lüneburg, the Hanover/Mannheim University Competition, the German Music Competition in Berlin, the European Competition of Young Organists in Ljubljana, and the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges. In 1999, he was a finalist in the ARD Competition in Munich. He also received numerous other scholarships and grants. In 1999, he was awarded the Lower Saxony Cultural Advancement Prize.

From 1997 to 1999, he was cantor and organist of the Nazareth Church in Hanover. He then served at two of the most important centers of church music in Germany: in 1999, he succeeded Prof. Oskar Gottlieb Blarr as cantor and organist at the Neander Church in Düsseldorf. From 2002 to 2004, Martin Schmeding held the position of organist at the Dresden Kreuzkirche, a church with a tradition spanning over 700 years. Furthermore, from 2012 to 2016, he was titular organist of St. Ludwig's Church in Freiburg and director of the chamber choir of the former South Baden Regional Cantorate.

After teaching positions in Hanover, Leipzig, Weimar, and Dresden, he was Professor of Organ at the Freiburg University of Music from 2004 to 2015, succeeding Professor Zsigmond Szathmáry. There, he also headed the Institute for Church Music, which he initiated and which was founded in October 2012. From 2014 to 2016, he held a visiting professorship at the Lucerne University of Music, Drama and Media (Switzerland). In the fall of 2015, he assumed the Chair of Organ Literature at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, a position combined with the directorship of the European Organ Academy—one of the most prestigious posts in his field. Since 2018, he has also served as a Visiting Guest Professor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Students from his organ class have won prizes at numerous international competitions and hold prominent positions in churches and universities.

Numerous recordings for television, radio, and CD exist (including the complete organ works of J. Brahms, F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Max Reger, and F. Schmidt; the first recording of Robert Schumann's works for pedal piano on an original instrument; and the organ version of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations). His artistic profile is further enhanced by score editions and publications in books and journals (including Butz, Carus, Herder, Schott, and edition text+kritik), concerts as a soloist, chamber musician, and with orchestras both in Germany and abroad (Europe, Asia, and America) and at festivals (including the Leipzig Bach Festival, the Thuringian Bach Weeks, the Braunschweig Chamber Music Podium, the Merseburg Organ Days, the Lower Saxony Music and Organ Days, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival), teaching at national and international masterclasses, and work as a competition juror, conductor, and composer.

In 2009, 2017, and 2020, he was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize (Best List). With his recording of "JS Bach: Goldberg Variations (Organ Version)," Martin Schmeding received one of the most prestigious international music awards, the "Echo Klassik 2010" as Instrumentalist of the Year.

In 2017, he was selected from over 2,000 nominees at 250 German universities and named Professor of the Year (Humanities and Cultural Studies) by the UNICUM Foundation (under the patronage of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research). He received his doctorate (Dr. phil., summa cum laude) in 2021 from the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music Dresden (Prof. Dr. Michael Heinemann) with a dissertation on the organ and early works of Wolfgang Rihm.

Monday 31 August | Jean-Baptiste Monnot (Q&A with Sir Andrew Parmley)

Programme:

• Prelude and Fugue in E flat, BWV 532 – J.S. Bach 
• Choral n°3 in A minor - César Franck 
• Prélude n°2 op. 11 & Étude nº1 op. 2 - Alexander Scriabin (trans. Jean-Baptiste Monnot) 
• Prometheus - Franz Liszt (trans. Jean Guillou) 
  

Biography:

Jean-Baptiste Monnot is currently the titular organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at St. Ouen Church in Rouen.

Born in 1984 in France, he began studying piano and organ at age 12. In 2002, he won the 1st prize awarded unanimously by the jury of the 4th edition of Young Organist Competition presided over Marie-Claire Alain and he received his Bachelor in Music degree. In 2003 he was awarded the 1st Prize of perfection in organ. He gained entrance to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2004, at age 19, and was awarded the 1st Prize in organ. In May 2007 he received his Master’s Degree (Diplôme de Formation Supérieure) in organ with first class honours, in the class of Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard before he improved his skills from Bernhard Haas in the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik. He participated several times between 2003 and 2005 in master classes given by Jean Guillou at the Zürich Tonhalle and at St. Eustache Church (Paris) in 2007. From 2004 to 2014 he was Jean Guillou‘s assistant at St. Eustache Church.

As a soloist, he performs regularly with ensembles or orchestras all over the world. He also performed during festivals such as Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Rome, Boston, New-Orleans, Cleveland, Vienna, Sydney, London, etc. In 2010 he managed the creation of the incidental music for Macbeth by Jean Guillou in the framework of a Japanese tour (Kyoto concert Hall, Nagoya concert Hall) under the supervision of Masaru Sekine. Soon after, he was appointed as artiste-in-residence in St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans. In 2014, he gave a concert organ and piano with Valérie Schaeffer at the Österreichischer Rundfunk of Vienna.

Jean-Baptiste Monnot is also the conceptor of a transportable organ named “Orgue du Voyage” with wich he develops new artistics perspectives in bringing organ everywhere with a new sight.