David M. Patrick, who was born in Devon, England in 1947, is one of the most brilliant British organists of his generation. He pursued his musical education at the Royal College of Music with distinction, winning the Stuart Prize for organ in 1967 and the coveted Walford Davies Prize the following year. This award brought him prestigious recitals at both Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral.
His early decision to specialise in romantic and modern French repertoire followed logically from his impulse to accept the highest technical and artistic challenges that the organ presents. Perceiving the unjustified neglect of its composers in the period between Franck and Messiaen, he has pioneered successfully the works of Widor, Vierne and Duruflé in his critically acclaimed commercial recordings and BBC broadcasts.
His recording of the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé, made in Coventry Cathedral in 1996, was listed as a Critic’s Choice of the Year by BBC Music Magazine. In a letter to David M. Patrick, the late Marie Madeleine Duruflé said “Vos interprétations des œuvres de M. Duruflé sont excellentes, je vous en félicite….bien…. Très bien… brillant… BRAVO.”
At the same time David M. Patrick has been active as a “live” recitalist. In an extended tour of the United States of America and Canada, he played in Washington D.C., New York, Baltimore, New Jersey, Toronto and Kitchener. November and December 1997 saw his first broadcasts on Norwegian national radio NRK P2. Meanwhile he continues to give recitals at both home and abroad including in England, Southwell Minster, Portsmouth Cathedral and St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol and in Norway the Domkirkes of Bodø, Stavanger, Fredrikstad, Tønsberg Oslo, Kristiansand, Molde and Tromsø and in Iceland at Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik. In August 2000 he recorded a new CD of Widor’s 3rd and 6th Organ Symphonies. Suite Gothique is his first recording on ZERGA.