Benjamin Saunders - Gracious Groove (2019)

On this album Benjamin Saunders plays a programme devoted to the pipe organ music of legendary American jazz musician-organist-composer Dick Hyman, upon the organ of Leeds Cathedral, Leeds, United Kingdom. Benjamin Saunders was educated at George Heriots School in Edinburgh. He received his first organ lessons at the age of sixteen at St. Marys Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh and two years later won an Organ Scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied with Peter Hurford. Upon graduating he held organist posts at the Cathedrals of St. Giles Edinburgh Blackburn, and Chester and continued organ studies with David Sanger, Ann Bond and Michel Bouvard. As an organist, Saunders aims to present a varied and accessible programme to delight audiences both young and old, be they new to organ music or lifelong devotees of the instrument. His solo repertoire includes classical, popular, and jazz works, some familiar and others new or recently rediscovered. He has also transcribed many orchestral works for the organ and these arrangements often form a popular part of his concert programmes.