The Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists presents the ninth annual recital celebrating the life of Robert Young Ellis this Friday at 8pm at First Presbyterian Church.  The featured organist is David Baskeyfield.

David Baskeyfield is the winner of the first prize and audience prize at the St Albans International Organ Competition, 2011. Following success in a number earlier competitions (1st prize, audience prize, Miami International Organ Competition 2010; 1st prize, Mader Memorial Organ Competition, LA, 2010; 2nd prize, Dublin International Organ Competition 2011, 1st prize, Rodland 2011; and 1st prize and audience prize, AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation 2011) he has launched a performing career encompassing both interpretation and improvisation.

Currently a doctoral student at the Eastman School of Music under David Higgs and William Porter, David read Law at Oxford as organ scholar at St John’s College, studying with John Wellingham and David Sanger. Between Oxford and Eastman he spent a year as organ scholar of Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

Aside from solo performance David is active as an accompanist, continuo player and occasional cocktail pianist. As an outgrowth of his interest in classical organ improvisation, he has taken to accompanying silent movies; recent engagements have featured The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Nosferatu (1922). He also enjoys occasional access to the large Wurlitzer organ in the Auditorium Theatre in downtown Rochester, and has gone some way to legitimising this private indulgence in being elected as a director on the Board of the Rochester Theatre Organ Society. He has been broadcast a number of times on American Public Media’s Pipedreams, playing repertoire and improvisations.

He is enthusiastic about food, red wine, microbrews, and Malawi cichlids. He is represented in the USA by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.