Peter Bannister

Born in London in 1966 but living in France since 1994, PETER BANNISTER holds graduate degrees in music (King’s College Cambridge) and systematic/philosophical theology (University of Wales). He has been the winner of several prizes at national and international level as a composer and performer, including the Prix André Caplet for composition from the Institut de France as well as prizes at international competitions in Chartres, Nuremberg (organ) and San Sebastian (composition).

His catalogue as a composer includes comprises orchestral, choral, chamber and solo vocal and instrumental music, with performances in Europe (London South Bank Centre, St John’s Smith Square, Vale of Glamorgan and Cheltenham Festivals, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Festival J.S. Bach St Donat, Bourges, Chartres, Chichester, Frankfurt, Münster, Oliwa, Trieste, Ulm Cathedrals, Würzburger Bachtage, Ensemblia Festival Mönchengladbach) and North America (Ann Arbor, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York) as well as broadcasts on German, Italian and American public radio. In December 2008 Peter Bannister conducted his oratorio Et iterum venturus est with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Maîtrise de Paris and the French Army Choir in the closing concert of the centenary Messiaen cycle at the church of La Trinité in Paris. Recent projects have included Breathe in me for choir and orchestra, which he conducted at the Paris-Bercy stadium (DVD December 2013), an organ concerto in memory of Albert Schweitzer (first performed in Stuttgart Cathedral, October 2013), an electro-acoustic Stabat Mater commissioned by the Warsaw-based Hashtag Ensemble/Polish Ministry of Culture which he conducted at the Poznan Musical Spring festival in 2016, the piano pieces Light of Tabor, Ancient Skies and Night Voyage, an Ave Maria in memory of Greco-Italian composer Marco Sofianopulo (1952-2014) premièred in series of performances in Notre-Dame de Paris (2016-2017), a Miserere for soprano and orchestra first performed in Finland by Tuuli Lindeberg and conductor Teemu Hämäläinen (April 2017), an extended ecumenical Magnificat for soloists, choir and orchestra (Heilbronn, October 2017),  and a second oratorio entitled The River of Life. 

As an organist and pianist, he has been invited to give concerto performances (Händel, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov …) and recitals in Britain, Austria (Wiener Stephansdom, Klangbogen Wien, Salzburg Cathedral), Croatia, Denmark, France (Notre-Dame de Paris, Bourges and Chartres Cathedrals, Radio-France, Collège des Bernardins), Germany (Baden-Baden, Bayreuth, Berlin, Bochumer Orgeltage, Erfurt Cathedral, Hannover, Stuttgart, Ulm Münster), Holland, Italy (Arezzo, La Verna, Padova, Ravenna, Trieste, Udine), Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the USA, as well as working as a continuo player with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Peter Bannister holds a Master’s Degree in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the University of Wales and has given guest presentations on music and theology at St Andrew’s University (Scotland), Cardiff BBC Hoddinott Hall, the Institut Catholique de Paris, Boston University, Southern Methodist University, Calvin and Wheaton Colleges (USA). From 2010 to 2013 he was Associate Artistic Director and Composer-in-Association with SOLI DEO GLORIA Inc., a Chicago-based organization devoted to furthering classical sacred music in the Biblical tradition. His most recent theological publication is the book No False Prophet: Pope Francis and his not-so-cultured despisers (November 2015). Having lived in Paris from 1994 to 2016 he currently resides in Cluny in Burgundy where he works for Lyon Catholic University, running the science-religion website http://www.sciencesetreligions.com and serving as an organist for the Taizé Community.

For more information visit www.peterjohnbannister.com

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