Organist to play at Lyric Singers' concert

MAESTRO: Leonard Cave with Lyric Singers' conductor Joanna Love and singing dog Fletcher. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

The Lyric Singers' mid-year concert, De Lovely Things, features organist Leonard Cave as one of its two guest artists. With the concert's venue being Christ Church, the home of a magnificent pipe organ, the choir's choice of Leonard as guest artist is well justified. He is also on the committee of the Friends of the Organ, dedicated to restoring the Christ Church instrument.

To say that Leonard lives and breathes organ music would be an understatement. The lounge in his Whanganui home contains two pipe organs, both of which he designed and had built in New Zealand. One is the traditional perception of a pipe organ, complete with visible metal pipes (actually made of an lead-zinc alloy called, oddly enough, pipe metal), and another, smaller, Canadian oak version, built to be "portable" - it breaks down for transportation and re-assembly. It contains about 300 pipes.

The large organ takes Leonard a day to disassemble and a week to put back together.
Both organs use electricity to keep the air reservoir full but everything else is mechanical.

Leonard was born in Whanganui and spent his early years on the family farm up the river beyond Papaiti. As a pupil at St George's School he was in the choir and they would occasionally use the Collegiate Chapel, where he heard the organ. That was his inspiration to learn the instrument.

But learning the organ is a cold, lonely experience.
"You have to be very determined," he says. The organ just "grabbed" him.

After graduating from Auckland University, he won a national organ playing competition and went to London to study organ performance for three years, under Nicholas Danby at the Guildhall. During this time he gained valuable performing experience in England and Germany.

On returning to New Zealand, he pursued a career in solo performance and accompanying and has played all over the country from Kaitaia to Queenstown. He has also been widely involved in teaching, conducting and adjudicating.

Having resigned from his position as Director of Music at St Paul's Collegiate School in Hamilton, where he also directed the Waikato University Choir for several years, he has returned to Whanganui, 'the perfect place' for a stress-free retirement.
"I just wanted to come home. I think it's a marvellous place."

Joanna Love, conductor of the Lyric Singers, had earlier approached Leonard as a possible voice in the choir. He politely declined, but his availability as an organist appealed. "We look for these guest artists who will enhance our concert," she says.

Leonard will be playing Präludium und Fuge (Prelude and Fugue) in e minor by Nicolaus Bruhns (1665 - 1697) and Toccata pour Orgue in b minor by Eugene Gigout (1844 - 1925).
Leonard's favourite music is North German Baroque.

Leonard is not the only musical one in his family. His son Matthew plays double bass with the NZ Symphony Orchestra and his dog Fletcher sings along with the organ.