Norman Harper
was organ scholar at Gonville & Caius College Cambridge, where he studied composition with Peter Tranchell and organ with Peter Le Huray and Gillian Weir. His career has included director of music posts at churches and schools in the north-west of England and in London. Most of his compositions have been written for choirs he has directed, including Mass for Lower Voices, for the Lay Clerks of St George’s Metropolitan Cathedral Southwark, and Unison Canticles and Mass of St George for the Cathedral Girls’ Choir. Most recently he composed Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis for the Northern Cathedral Consort. Norman has performed widely as organ soloist and accompanist in the UK and abroad, including solo recitals on BBC Radio 3, and he has accompanied or directed numerous broadcast choral services on BBC radio and television. He commissioned two organ works from the composer Thomas Hyde: Præludium (1996) and Lucis Creator (2005). Norman gave Lucis Creator its premiere in a recital at King’s College Cambridge, and has recorded both works on CD together with music by Timothy Craig Harrison. In 2018 he retired from his post as director of music at St George’s Cathedral and remains active as a composer and organist.