John Scott

Organist and Director of Music

Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York City

John Scott was born in 1956 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, where he became a Cathedral chorister. While still at school he gained the diplomas of the Royal College of Organists and won the major prizes. In 1974 he became Organ Scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he acted as assistant to Dr. George Guest. His organ studies were with Jonathan Bielby, Ralph Downes, and Dame Gillian Weir. He made his debut in the 1977 Promenade Concerts in the Royal Albert Hall, the youngest organist to appear in the Proms.

On leaving Cambridge, he was appointed Assistant Organist at London’s two Anglican Cathedrals, St. Paul’s and Southwark. In 1985 he became Sub-Organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and in 1990 he succeeded Dr. Christopher Dearnley as Organist and Director of Music.

As an organist, John Scott has performed in five continents, premiered many new works written for him, and worked with various specialist ensembles. He is a first-prize winner from the 1978 Manchester International Organ Competition and the 1984 Leipzig J.S. Bach Competition. In 1998 he was nominated International Performer of the Year by the New York Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He is a Past President of the Incorporated Association of Organists. He has been a member of a number of international competition juries, including those in Manchester, Dublin, Chartres, Dallas, St. Albans and Erfurt. Recent highlights of his career have included recitals in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Notre Dame in Paris, the Aarhus Organ Festival in Denmark, Cologne Cathedral, Disney Hall in Los Angeles and London’s Royal Albert Hall. In addition to his work as a conductor and organist, John Scott has published a number of choral compositions and arrangements and he has jointly edited two compilations of liturgical music for the Church’s year, published by Oxford University Press.

In 2004, after 26 years at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, John Scott moved to take up the post of Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York, where he directs the renowned Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. In 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin.

Frederick Teardo

Associate Organist

St. Thomas Church, New York City

Frederick Teardo is Associate Organist at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City, where he holds primary responsibility for service playing, accompanying the Choir of Men and Boys, and training the Junior Choir. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Teardo served as Assistant Organist at St. Thomas Church since September 2006.

Mr. Teardo received both the Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts degrees from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. At Yale, he studied organ with Thomas Murray and harpsichord with Richard Rephann. During Mr. Teardo’s time at Yale, he held the post of Yale University Chapel Organist, and later served as Assistant Organist at Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green in New Haven, CT. Mr. Teardo received his Bachelor of Music degree with Highest Honors from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he studied organ with David Higgs. His other teachers have included Stephen Roberts and Haskell Thomson. He has also studied improvisation with William Porter and Jeffrey Brillhart.

An avid performer, Mr. Teardo has won first prize in numerous competitions, and has performed across the United States, including such venues as St. Bartholomew’s Church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Methuen Memorial Music Hall, Trinity Church Copley Square in Boston, and Princeton University Chapel. He has also been a featured performer at Regional and National Conventions of the American Guild of Organists and Organ Historical Society, on the NPR program Pipedreams, and in a segment on the revived interest of the pipe organ on ABC World News Tonight.

Current as of August 2009