Gerard Gillen has been Titular Organist of Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral since 1976 and was Professor and Head of Music at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth from 1985 to 2007. A First Class Honours graduate of University College, Dublin, Oxford University, and the Royal Conservatoire of Music, Antwerp (where he gained the Prix d'Excellence, the highest award for instrumental performance), Professor Gillen has an international reputation as an organ recitalist and has given over 950 recitals throughout Europe, the Middle East, America and Australia, performing at such prestigious venues as the Royal Festival Hall, London, King’s College, Cambridge, St Thomas, New York, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, St Thomas’, Leipzig, St Bavo, Haarlem, cathedrals and major recital venues in Antwerp, Bratislava, Brussels, Bruges, Copenhagen, Freiburg, Ghent, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Kosice, Lübeck, Luxembourg, Malaga, Oslo, Notre Dame and La Madeleine, Paris, Madrid, Pittsburgh, Potsdam, Rome, San Francisco, Talinn, Turin, Warsaw, Zaragosa etc. He has also been a member of international competition juries in Oxford, Ann Arbor, London, Graz and Dublin. Recital engagements for 2014 take him to Germany, Poland and to Westminster Cathedral for the annual prestigious ‘Grand Organ Festival’.

Gerard Gillen was founder of the Dublin International Organ & Choral Festival (now ‘Pipeworks’) of which he was artistic director from 1990-2000. He is currently chair of the National Advisory Committee on Church Music to the Irish Episcopal Conference. In 1984 he was conferred with a Knighthood of St. Gregory (KCSG) by the Vatican. Other honours include the John Betts Visiting Fellowship at Oxford (1992), and in December 1996 he was nominated the classical winner in Ireland's TV National Entertainment Awards, the first and only organist to be so honoured. In 2006 he was made a Chevalier des Ars et des Lettres by the French Government for his contribution to French Music, and in 2007 he was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Pontifical University of Maynooth for his services to Church Music, and in 2010 he was awarded the Belgian Government honour of ‘Officer of the Crown’ and the Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst, 1e Klasse (Cross of Honour for Science and Arts) by the Government of Austria. He was also elected to Fellowship of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (FRIAM). His CD of the organ music of César Franck and Flor Peeters on the English LCS HiRes label was one of Norman Lebrecht’s special Christmas recommendations for 2009.

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Grand Choeur in D (Alla Handel), op.18

Johann Pachelbel (1653 – 1706)

Aria Tertia

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Toccata and Fugue in F, BWV 540

Eugène Gigout (1844-1925)

Scherzo

Charles V. Stanford (1852-1924)

Intermezzo (on an Irish Air), op. 189 no. 4

Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937)

Intermezzo, from Symphony No. 6 in G minor

Naji Hakim (b.1955)

Mariales pour Orgue

1. Incantation

2. Pastorale

3. Antienne

4. Hymne

5. Danse

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Fantaisie in F Minor, KV 608