Anne Page Organist / Harmonium recitalist

Anne Page is known in the UK and abroad as a musician who combines virtuosity with versatility. Born and educated in Perth, Australia, Anne Page subsequently studied in Europe with Marie-Claire Alain, Peter Hurford and Jacques van Oortmerssen. Her London debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1988 playing 20th century masterpieces marked a commitment to contemporary music which led to commissions and premieres of new works. It also led to international recital appearances and broadcasts in Europe, the USA and Australia.

Of equal importance is her interest in historic instruments, their repertoire and playing techniques which inform both her playing and teaching. Anne Page has been closely involved with the Historic Organ Sound Archive, playing an essential role in its organisation as well as researching and performing over 10 hours of recordings for the project. The HOSA project has been a pioneer of free internet access to classical music - see below for details. Anne Page continues to give talks to organists' associations about this major resource for the study of English organs and their music and has contributed articles on its use to several organ journals.

Interest in historical performance led to her engagement with the harmonium, an instrument only recently receiving attention from scholars and musicians as a serious medium for this as well as for contemporary music. She is acknowledged as one of the country's leading experts and has appeared as soloist at the Edinburgh, Three Choirs and Oundle Festivals. The Royal Academy of Music invited Anne Page to establish a course in Harmonium, the first in modern times at any conservatory in the UK. She is therefore a successor to  Lemmens as Professor of Harmonium, who was appointed at the RAM in 1869.

During eight years (1987-1994) as Artistic and Executive Director of the Cambridge Summer Recitals Anne Page programmed many first performances of new works and invited major recitalists from abroad to give UK debut recitals. Gaston Litaize and Louis Thiry gave masterclasses for Cambridge organ scholars in addition to their concerts. Anne Page has more recently been instrumental in founding a charity for the education of organists, the Cambridge Academy of Organ Studies which presents regular study days with distinguished scholars and teachers and an annual summer course in Cambridge.

To access the Historic Organ Sound Archive go to the British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) website: www.bios.org.uk/npor.html