David Briggs (English musician)

David John Briggs (born November 1, 1962) is an English organist and composer. He started his career as a cathedral organist as Assistant Organist in Hereford Cathedral before becoming the organist of Truro and Gloucester Cathedrals. Heavily influenced by Jean Langlais and Pierre Cochereau, Briggs is regarded as one of the world's finest improvisors, and now works as a concert organist. Briggs is a composer of choral and organ music, and has also transcribed many orchestral works into versions for solo organ, and has also transcribed many of Cochereau's recorded improvisations.

David Briggs was educated at Solihull School. He was organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge from 1981-84. At the relatively early age of 17 he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO). He was also sometime Principal Viola of the National Youth Orchestra.

Whilst at university, he toured Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany with the college choir. In 1983 he received the Countess of Munster Award to study Interpretation and Improvisation with Jean Langlais in Paris, with whom he furthered in his interest in the art of improvisation by his transcriptions of the recordings of the late Pierre Cochereau. Transcribing the remarkable improvisations from Cochereau's cassette recordings took eleven years. Briggs' subsequent performances and recordings of them earned him his initial acclaim. He was also the first British organist to win the Tournemire prize for improvisation at the St Albans International Organ Festival.

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