New Zealand-American organist Eugene Lavery to play in Palmerston North during NZ tour

New Zealand-American organist Eugene Lavery is touring New Zealand in July with a stop in Palmy planned.

Lavery is performing in the prestigious Auckland Town Hall Organ Concert Series in the first weekend in July. He will then travel to Palmerston North - to present a concert at Pathways Presbyterian Church at St Andrews,

Lavery said he was excited to return home to New Zealand to play three concerts.

While performing on the wonderful internationally renoun Klais organ at the Town Hall in Auckland will no doubt be a career highlight, he is also pleased to be playing in the city of his birth, Palmerston North, for the first time.

He will also return to Napier after having a great time performing there in 2018. In addition to seeing family, Lavery hopes to see many old friends while in the country. He is accompanied by his wife Dr Sharon Lavery and their two sons. Sharon Lavery serves as chorus director and opera assistant conductor at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera.

Lavery will be the third and final international organist to perform at St Andrew in 2024.

The programme will begin with the Hornpipe from Handel’s Water Music Suite with Bach’s energetic and dance-like Prelude and Fugue in A minor as a centre piece, as well as popular French romantic works and spiritual arrangements including Lay my burden down and Steal Away.

Lavery is highly sought after as a performer and teacher, having played at venues such as St Paul’s Cathedral, London; St Ignatius Loyola, New York; and St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney. Lavery has also performed with the American Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra; and has served on the faculty of Royal School of Church Music courses in the United States, New Zealand, and Nigeria. Lavery also performed as an organist for live broadcasts for Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand.

He serves as organist and director of music at St Alban’s Episcopal Church in Waco in Texas. The semi-professional adult choir has just completed a tour of the United Kingdom where the choir sang services at St Alban’s Cathedral. As well as directing the choir, Lavery runs the St Alban’s Chorister programme, the professional Vox Seraphim baroque choir and orchestra, and a vibrant concert series.

Previous church positions in the United States include organist and director of music at St Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Louisville, Kentucky and artistic director of the Cathedral Choir School of Delaware, one of the most prominent Episcopal chorister programmes in the United States.

Born in New Zealand, Lavery received his Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland while also serving as organ scholar and then assistant organist at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland, New Zealand.

In 2007 Lavery relocated to New York after gaining entry to the prestigious Master of Music programme at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Paul Jacobs.

The details:

What: Organ concert by Eugene Lavery from Waco, Texas

When: Wednesday, July 10. 7.30pm

Where: Pathways Presbyterian Church at St Andrews, Palmerston North.

More: Doors open 7pm. Programmes will be on sale. $20 adults, $15 concession. Free entry for 18 years and under.