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The English organist, Catherine Mary Ennis, was an organ scholar at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, before serving as assistant organist of Christ Church Cathedral. Ennis joined the Royal College of Organists in 1978. She established an international organ recital career, with tours taking her throughout Europe and the USA, and concerts in major UK venues including the Proms and the Royal Festival Hall series. She astonished a capacity audience at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with her version of J.S. Bach's Musical Offering (BWV 1079) on the small Flentrop organ there.
Since 1985, Catherine Ennis was Organist and Director of Music at the church of St. Lawrence Jewry, the church of the Corporation of London, where her series of Tuesday lunchtime recitals continue a century- long tradition of organ music as midday respite for all, whether City workers, tourists, or afficionados. The series was enhanced by a fine Klais organ, installed in 2001.
Her recordings included a Guilmant disc for EMI at St. Marylebone Parish Church, London, a disc of English Romantic organ music for IFO, from Muenster Cathedral in Germany, and J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) for Mollterz at St. Lawrence Jewry (on the 5- stop Chapel organ) . Future releases include “Homage to Schweitzer” from St. Lawrence, and the Reubke Sonata from St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh. She broadcast frequently for the BBC and RTE radio.
Catherine Ennis taught at Trinity College of Music, London. Oundle International Festival, Edinburgh Organ Academy and Eton Summer School were among recent teaching and performing engagements. Her diary in 2010 included appearances in London, Ireland, Luxembourg, Germany, and the USA, inter alia.
Uniquely, Catherine Ennis has was the catalyst behind three major instruments in London, those at St. Marylebone (Rieger) in 1987 and at St. Lawrence in 2001, and the William Drake organ for Trinity College of Music, Greenwich, installed in 2003. She was involved in other organ advisory projects.
In 1994, Catherine Ennis founded the London Organ Concerts Guide, which seeks to persuade a wider audience that the organ can be of more than minority interest. She was President of the Incorporated Association of Organists (2003-2005), a Trustee of the Nicholas Danby Trust for student organists, former council member of the Royal College of Organists (2012-2016), President of the RCO (2013-2015), and wrote for various musical journals.
Catherine Ennis was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists in 2018. The citation for the medal details her contribution to the planning and execution of the college’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2014. |
