{{Short description|English pianist, organist and composer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Jeremy Filsell | image = | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1964|04|10|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Musician | education = Keble College }}
'''Jeremy Daniel Filsell''' (born 10 April 1964) is a British pianist, organist and composer who has served as director of music at Christ Episcopal Church in Bradenton, Florida since September 2025. He previously held similar positions in the United Kingdom and the United States, including at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, in New York City from 2019 to 2025.
==Biography== Having played piano and organ from a young age, Filsell was a student at Stivichall Primary School and Blue Coat Church of England School in Coventry.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/pianist-jeremy-filsell-returns-coventry-7969386 |title=Pianist Jeremy Filsell returns to Coventry roots to raise funds for church organ |author=Patsy Fuller |website=coventrytelegraph.net |date= 2014-10-21 |access-date=2024-06-21}}</ref> He was a Limpus prize winner for the Royal College of Organists examination, which he took when he was 19, and a silver medalist of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He studied music at Oxford University, where he was an organ scholar at Keble College, studying with Nicolas Kynaston and Daniel Roth. He went on to study piano with David Parkhouse and Hilary McNamara at the Royal College of Music and Martin Hughes at the University of Surrey. He won second prize in the 1993 St Albans International Organ Competition.
He has particular interest in English piano music and French organ music. He plays in a piano trio with Oliver Lewis, violin, and Neil Heyde, cello, and a piano duo with Francis Pott.
===Piano=== He has performed as a piano soloist around the world, and recorded in solo and concerto repertoire for Radio 3. He has been a repetiteur for John Eliot Gardiner, Vernon Handley and Sir Charles Groves. From 1989 to 1991 he was pianist of the European Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has recorded little-known piano music by Eugene Goossens, Herbert Howells, Carl Johann Eschmann, and Bernard Stevens, and the piano and organ sonatas of Julius Reubke.
===Organ=== He performed the complete organ works of Marcel Dupré in London in 1998, over nine weekly recitals at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jeremyfilsell.com/uploads/File/reviews/Classical%20Music.pdf |title=Article in ''Classical Music'' magazine about the Dupré recitals |access-date=2007-06-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225742/http://www.jeremyfilsell.com/uploads/File/reviews/Classical%20Music.pdf |archive-date=2007-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He recorded the same works over a two-week period in September of the same year, on 12 CDs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pipedreams.org/episode/2001/04/30/the-duprélegend|title=The DupréLegend|website=Pipedreams.org|accessdate=7 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guildmusic.com/shop/index.php|title=Home Guildmusic - Onlineshop f?r CDs und DVDs aus Klassik, Weltmusik, Jazz, Blues, Gospel|website=Guildmusic.com|accessdate=7 August 2020}}</ref> He completed a Ph.D. thesis on contextual, analytical and aesthetic issues in the music of Marcel Dupré, at Birmingham Conservatoire/University of Central England.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jeremyfilsell.com/PHD%20abstract.pdf |title=Abstract of Ph.D. thesis |access-date=2015-02-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212025750/http://www.jeremyfilsell.com/PHD%20abstract.pdf |archive-date=2015-02-12 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2021, Filsell performed Dupré's complete organ works, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer's death, in a concert series at Saint Thomas Church in New York, where Dupré himself once played and recorded some of his works.<ref>[https://www.saintthomaschurch.org/events/dupre-the-complete-works-for-organ-i-2021-01-23/ Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City. Dupré: The Complete Works for Organ I (23 January 2021)]. Retrieved 27 January 2021.</ref>
He has made original transcriptions for organ of orchestral works (such as Paul Dukas's ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'') and transcribed the improvisations of Pierre Cochereau as recorded at Notre-Dame de Paris.<ref>[http://www.jeremyfilsell.com/index.php?page=trinity-wall-street Video broadcast] at Trinity Wall Street, New York City, at which he performs these transcriptions</ref> These are published by Editions Chantraine, Belgium.
He has made a complete recording of the six Organ Symphonies of Louis Vierne on the 1890 Cavaillé-Coll organ in Abbatiale Saint-Ouen, Rouen, and the organ music of Arthur Wills and Francis Pott, amongst many others.<ref>Discography: [http://www.guildmusic.com/artists/filsell.htm Guild Music: Jeremy Filsell]; [http://www.sanctuaryclassics.com/index.php?section=4&subsection=1&getArticleId=69 Sanctuary Classics: Jeremy Filsell]; [http://www.signumrecords.com/artists/jeremy_filsell/index.htm Signum Records: Jeremy Filsell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818222818/http://www.signumrecords.com/artists/jeremy_filsell/index.htm |date=2007-08-18 }}</ref>
===Academic and professional posts=== Until 2008 he was lecturer in academic studies at the Royal Academy of Music, visiting tutor in organ studies at the Royal Northern College of Music,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rncm.ac.uk/component/option,com_contxtd/task,view/contact_id,174/Itemid,131/|title=RNCM: Jeremy Filsell|website=Rncm.ac.uk|accessdate=7 August 2020|archive-date=3 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090403080051/http://www.rncm.ac.uk/component/option,com_contxtd/task,view/contact_id,174/Itemid,131/|url-status=dead}}</ref> taught at Eton College and was a countertenor lay clerk in the choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Previously he was assistant organist at Ely Cathedral, director of music at St Luke's, Chelsea, and assistant director of music at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, both in London. He has taught masterclasses in performance and interpretation on the Henry Wood and Oundle International Summer Schools, Eton Choral Courses, and in the U.S. at Yale University and Utah State University.
From 2008 to 2009, Filsell was principal organist of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. He then directed the music at Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Baltimore,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jeremyfilsellmusic.com/|title=Jeremy Filsell|website=Jeremyfilsellmusic.com|accessdate=7 August 2020}}</ref> and in 2010 became artist-in-residence at Washington National Cathedral, where he performed Olivier Messiaen's work ''La Nativité du Seigneur'' on 18 December 2011.
In 2019 he succeeded Daniel Hyde as director of music at Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/about/filsell |title=Jeremy Filsell Called to Succeed Daniel Hyde | About | Saint Thomas Church |access-date=2018-12-15 |archive-date=2018-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214172725/http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/about/filsell |url-status=dead }}</ref> He left in 2025<ref>[https://www.gramophone.co.uk/choir-and-organ/news/article/jeremy-filsell-to-leave-saint-thomas-fifth-avenue ''Choir and Organ'', "Jeremy Filsell to leave Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue"], 29 January 2025. Retrieved 30 January 2025.</ref><ref name=jan25news>[https://www.saintthomaschurch.org/2025/01/19/the-rectors-message-for-the-week-of-january-19-2025/ Saint Thomas Church, "The Rector's Message for the Week of January 19, 2025"]. Retrieved 28 January 2025.</ref> and was subsequently appointed organist and director of music at Christ Episcopal Church in Bradenton, Florida.<ref name=ccbrad>[https://cecb.church/dr-jeremy-filsell.html Christ Episcopal Church, Bradenton, Florida, Director of Music/Organist]. Retrieved 1 September 2025.</ref>
==Personal life== Filsell is married to Rebecca Kellerman-Filsell,<ref>[https://therecord-online.com/site/archives/93358 ''The Record'', "William P. Kellerman Memorial Scholarship Recital"], 23 March 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2024.</ref> a freelance soprano who also works with Sarasota Young Voices in Sarasota, Florida.<ref>[https://www.srqmagazine.com/srq-daily/2025-06-19/27065_Sarasota-Young-Voices-Welcomes-Rebecca-Kellerman-Filsell-as-Associate-Artistic-Director-and-Operations-Manager SRQ Magazine, "Sarasota Young Voices Welcomes Rebecca Kellerman-Filsell as Associate Artistic Director and Operations Manager"], 19 June 2025. Retrieved 1 September 2025.</ref> She previously taught at Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City,<ref>[https://www.choirschool.org/faculty-staff Saint Thomas Choir School, Meet Our Faculty and Staff]. Retrieved 2 May 2024.</ref> where she founded and directed the children's parish choir at Saint Thomas Church,<ref>[https://www.saintthomaschurch.org/2021/09/07/a-new-childrens-choir/ Saint Thomas Church, New York, "A New Children's Choir"], 7 September 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2024.</ref> and at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
==Notes and references== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{official website|https://www.jeremyfilsell.com/}} * {{YouTube|LJHXYEGwZL0|Filsell playing ''Prologue et Noël varié''}}, by Pierre Pincemaille at Washington Cathedral
{{s-start}} {{succession box | title=Organist and Director of Music,<br />Saint Thomas Church, New York | before=Daniel Hyde | years=2019–2025 | after=Richard Tanner}} {{s-end}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filsell, Jeremy}} Category:1964 births Category:21st-century English classical composers Category:21st-century English male composers Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Category:Alumni of the University of Surrey Category:Contemporary classical music performers Category:English classical organists Category:English male classical pianists Category:Classical piano duos Category:Living people Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Organists Category:English male classical composers Category:21st-century English classical pianists Category:21st-century English organists Category:English male classical organists Category:21st-century male pianists