John O'Donnell
John O’Donnell, Director of Ensemble Gombert, studied at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and at the University of Durham. After performing Bach’s complete organ works in 1974, he built an international reputation as an organist and harpsichordist.
John O’Donnell was born in Sydney and studied at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and the University of Durham. After performing the complete organ works of Bach in 1974, he built an international reputation as an organist and harpsichordist. In 1985 he followed this with the complete harpsichord works and the first Australian performance of the newly discovered Neumeister Chorales, becoming the first person ever to perform Bach’s total keyboard output—twenty-nine recitals in all.
In 1985 he was appointed Music Director of the Tudor Choristers of Melbourne, and in 1990 he founded Ensemble Gombert, a choir of sixteen voices devoted primarily to the music of the High Renaissance. As a senior lecturer in musicology at the University of Melbourne he published articles on performance practice, prepared an edition of the complete keyboard works of Johann Caspar Kerll, and completed a monograph on High Renaissance musica ficta.
His performances abroad have included recitals in Europe and ten tours of North America. He has also served on the juries of national and international competitions in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany.
Press quotes
His harpsichord playing, confident but more muted than we generally expect for seventeenth-century German harpsichord music today, emphasises the music's dignity and grace.
His performances are quite superb: powerful, energetic and crisp, and the listener is carried along by his infectious rhythmic sense.
One can but admire O’Donnell’s sensitivity, technical address and consistently thoughtful choice of registrations.
O'Donnell's technique is fluid and assured, and his registrations consistently give clarity and individuality to each separate voice.
John O'Donnell is featured on the following titles
Josquin to Martin
A miscellany spanning High and Late Renaissance motets and nineteenth- and twentieth-century sacred works, drawn from Ensemble Gombert’s first European tour in 2004. The programme was chosen to complement Hommage à Gombert, then in production, with Gombert, Lassus and Monteverdi.
Performing as Capella Corelli
Capella Corelli, one of Australia's foremost baroque chamber ensembles, was formed 21 years ago. The violin works of the great Italian virtuoso Arcangelo Corelli and of his Italian predecessors were the initial inspiration for the group.
La Prima Stravaganza
Sonatas of 17th-century Italy from Capella Corelli: a window on instrumental music as it found its own voice, from the experimental works of Cima, Castello, Montalbano, Fontana, Frescobaldi, Marini and Uccellini through to Corelli.
Capella Corelli Plays Handel and Telemann
Capella Corelli has long been one of Australia’s foremost baroque chamber ensembles. Here they present sonatas by Handel and Telemann for baroque violin, recorder, viola da gamba and harpsichord.
Contributor: Program notes
Performing as Schola Cantorum Baroque Players
More about Schola Cantorum Baroque Players
The Litanies of St. Francis Xavier
A generous 2-CD set of Jan Dismas Zelenka’s liturgical music from the Schola Cantorum of Melbourne: the Litaniae Xaverianae, five Vespers psalms, the Magnificat in D and the Alma Redemptoris Mater.
John O'Donnell also appears on
Music from 4 to 40 Parts
Angeli Vocal Ensemble, pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, chamber choir Ensemble Gombert and the Four Seasons String Quartet perform Melbourne composer Vaughan McAlley’s music. The programme explores writing from four parts up to forty, in his distinctive approach to counterpoint.
Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields
Fifteen historic organs from the Ballarat region are heard on this disc, released to mark the 2005 Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields festival. A fully illustrated 16-page booklet surveys the builders, churches, instruments, music and performers.
Other credits
La Follia
La Follia variations by Corelli, Vitali, Vivaldi and Scarlatti, in vivid performances by German recorder virtuoso Susanne Ehrhardt with Australian harpsichordist and organist Jacqueline Ogeil.
Buxtehude at the Harpsichord
Acclaimed harpsichordist Jacqueline Ogeil performs rarely heard Buxtehude harpsichord works. Most of these secular pieces surfaced only in the twentieth century; suites, arias and variations in popular Baroque idioms, light and entertaining in character.
The Virtuoso Harpsichord
Melbourne harpsichordist Jacqueline Ogeil presents the instrument’s virtuosic, dramatic and passionate sides, from Bach and Scarlatti to Handel, Rameau and the premiere of Naji Hakim’s suite Shasta.
Orgelbüchlein
Calvin Bowman gives an expert reading of J.S. Bach's Little Organ Book – a microcosm of the composer's inventive and improvisational genius – on the Ahrend organ at Robert Blackwood Hall.
John O'Donnell is a member of
Elysium Ensemble
The Elysium Ensemble has been acclaimed by critics for its exciting performances, fine musicianship and authoritative interpretations of Baroque and Classical repertoire on period instruments.