Ghislaine Reece-Trapp
Key Facts
- Instrument: Organ, Composer/conductor
Biography
Ghislaine is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, winning the Limpus, Shinn and Durrant prizes, and the Coventry Cathedral Recital Award, for the years 2014-15. She is a member of the Royal College of Organists’ Academic Board and the Royal School of Church Music’s London Committee, and is a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
On leaving school, where Ghislaine was the DFES Specialist Organist at Wells Cathedral School and the Junior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral, Ghislaine took up the Organ Scholarship at Guildford Cathedral during her gap year, where she won the South of England Organ Competition at the age of 19. She became Organ Scholar and Academic Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, before being promoted to the position of Assistant Organist at the Cathedral. She is currently setting up the organ department at Highgate School, where she teaches academic music and runs the Girls’ Chapel Choir.
Ghislaine has performed as an organist and conductor across the UK and abroad, including at Cadogan Hall, St. John’s, Smith Square, Westminster Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral (FRCO prize), St Alban’s Abbey (as part of the International Organ Festival), St Paul’s Cathedral, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing. She has performed live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4, and on Chinese national television.
Ghislaine has given recitals and led workshops for the Royal College of Organists and the Royal School of Church Music, and regularly teaches for the Oxford and Cambridge Singing School. She and Anne Marsden Thomas MBE are the Co-Chairs for the Society of Women Organists, which will launch at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2019. Ghislaine was presented to the Queen at St James’ Palace in 2014, and invited to the Queen’s Garden Party 2018, for her services to the organ.
Since leaving university, Ghislaine has focused increasingly on writing music, reaching the Finals of the BBC Radio 3 Carol of the Year Composition Competition 2016 and the Northern Ireland International Composition Competition 2016. Her work has been performed by Manchester Cathedral Choir, Southwark Cathedral Choir, and the BBC Singers, and is being released on CD by Westminster School later this year. Ghislaine regularly receives composition commissions from both the Royal School of Church Music and independent choirs. Her recently published work, ‘Alleluia! A new work is come on hand’, is the Royal School of Church Music’s second-best-selling carol ever.
You can listen to the BBC Singers recording of her composition, and view the score, here.
Musicians’ Company Award: Silver Medal – Royal College of Organists 2016
Page Updated: Nov 2018