James O'Donnell (organist)

James Anthony O'Donnell LVO KCSG (born 15 August 1961) is a British organist, choral conductor and academic teacher who has been a professor of organ at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in Connecticut, United States, since 2023.

[1] Born in Scotland, O'Donnell later moved to England, where he attended Westcliff High School for Boys in Essex before gaining a scholarship for organ and harpsichord at the Royal College of Music.

[8][9] On 19 September he led the choir at the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey,[9][10] including a new setting of "Like as the hart" by Judith Weir and a new anthem, "Who shall separate us?

[15] Conducting the Westminster Cathedral Choir, O'Donnell recorded works by Maurice Duruflé in 1995, including the Requiem with organ and the Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, Notre Père and Messe cum jubilo.

[17][18][19] A reviewer from Hi-Fi News commented that the singers responded to their conductor "in inspirational fashion" and noted "choral singing of great security and immaculate tonal blend, ardent and full-throated in tuttis yet wonderfully serene too".

[19] On the same Hyperion Records CD O'Donnell conducted Pizzetti's De profundis dating from 1837 and played Martin's Passacaille for organ, composed in 1944.

[18][19] Robert Layton from Gramophone wrote that "it is a measure of James O'Donnell's achievement with Westminster Cathedral Choir that the gain in purity and beauty is at no time at the expense of depth and fervour.

[20] In a 2014 recording entitled Music for Remembrance, O'Donnell combined Duruflé's Requiem, in the orchestral version, with choral works written in memory of those fallen in the World Wars, including Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer set by Philip Moore and The peace that surpasseth understanding by John Tavener, performed by soloists Christine Rice and Roderick Williams, the Westminster Abbey Choir, the Britten Sinfonia and organist Robert Quinney; it was conducted by O'Donnell[21] and recorded at Westminster Abbey.

He said at a recording session: "I spend my life working against the clock, and people don't make good music if they're under pressure.

[22] O'Donnell was awarded the title of Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great (KCSG) by Pope John Paul II in 1999 on his retirement from Westminster Cathedral.