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The English organist, harpsichordist and pianist, Michael Overbury, got early musical influences in Farnham and London. At his local Parish Church, St Andrew’s, he was introduced as chorister and Assistant Organist, to the glories of the English liturgical tradition, and it was here also that his organ teacher Stephen Thomson inspired in him a love of the harpsichord. Also during these years at Farnham Grammar School, the nationally acclaimed Farnham Festivals provided opportunity for Michael to give number of first performances on solo piano, including works by Richard Rodney Bennett, recorded by the BBC, and Leonard Bernstein. These exciting and formative experiences were complemented by Saturday mornings at Trinity College of Music, London, where he held a Junior Exhibition. Horizons broadened with an Organ Scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge , where he read music and studied the organ with Gillian Weir. Whilst there he was also a founding member of Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, with whom he toured extensively abroad. Harpsichord tuition continued with Kenneth Gilbert.
After graduating, Michael Overbury was successively, an assisting organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, Assistant Organist at New College, Oxford, a deputy organist and choir master at the Cathedral and Abbey Church at St Alban's, Director of Music at Eagle House Preparatory School for Boys, and Master of the Song School at Newark, Nottinghamshire. In 1980, he was made Director of Music at Newark Parish Church where he made recordings both on the organ and with the famous church choir. His recordings have met with popular and critical acclaim. Other recordings have included a highly acclaimed recording of the famous Binns organ in Nottingham Town Hall.
After winning First Prize in the 1982 Manchester International Organ Competition, Michael Overbury appeared twice as soloist at the Royal Festival Hall and has continued to play with numerous choirs and orchestras, including Sinfonia Viva (formerly the East of England Orchestra), the Wren Orchestra, the Orchestra of St John’s Smith Square, the Milton Keynes Chamber orchestra, and English Sinfonia, and has featured on several recordings, including five solo discs.
Michael was for 15 years Director of Music of the Priory Church of Our Lady & S Cuthbert, Worksop (1999-2014), and currently remains a founder member of Mvsica Donvm Dei, playing on period instruments mainly in the East Midlands, with whom he appeared on Radio Three's Eighteenth-Century season on 'In Tune' live from Kedleston Hall. He is also harpsichordist for the chamber trio Continuum, with whom he has performed twice at the Handel House Museum in London. He was for 25 years Director of Music of Nottingham Boys Choir. He has been accompanist to Nottingham Harmonic Society, and for many years has written reviews for the Organists' Review. He is currently accompanist to Ruddington and District Choral Society, and to Sinfonia Chorale in Nottingham. He has a number of mainly liturgical compositions published, which have been warmly received. He plays his own Flemish-type harpsichord built in 1984 in the style of instruments by Andries Ruckers. He currently lives in Nottingham. |
