James McVinnie

Through his boundless approach to music making, his collaborations with a vast array of artists from many different walks of musical life, his innovative programming and captivating musicianship of the highest order, James McVinnie has carved out a unique career as an organist and keyboard player.

McVinnie has had major concerto and solo works written for him by Nico Muhly, Gabriella Smith, Tristan Perich, Tom Jenkinson/Squarepusher, artist Martin Creed, David Chalmin, David Lang, Richard Reed Parry, Bryce Dessner, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Darkstar, amongst many others.

He directs the James McVinnie Ensemble, a collective of virtuoso keyboardists dedicated to exploring work often preoccupied with political themes by contemporary and emerging composers. The ensemble’s roots go back to 2017 with a performance at London’s Barbican Centre of Music in Twelve Parts by Philip Glass—the only performance in the piece’s history given by anyone other than the Philip Glass Ensemble. 2022 season featured performances of Julius Eastman Gay Guerrilla & Claude McKay’s 1922 collection of poetry Harlem Shadows in a collaboration with the London Review of Books at London’s Bold Tendencies. New works by Gabriella Smith & inti figgis-vizueta are planned for the Ensemble in 2024 and beyond.

2023/24 season includes the premiere of Eden Interstates by Samuel Adams with Los Angeles Philharmonic; McVinnie’s first hybrid piano & organ solo programme at Walt Disney Concert Hall; Breathing Forests — an organ concerto about the complex relationship between humans, forests, climate change, and fire (written by Gabriella Smith for McVinnie in 2022) with San Francisco Symphony/Esa Pekka Salonen as part of California Festival; Infinity Gradient (written by Tristan Perich for McVinnie in 2021) for organ and 100 speakers in 1bit audio at Southbank Centre; Register (concerto for organ and orchestra written by Nico Muhly for McVinnie in 2018) with Helsinki Philharmonic/Pekka Kuusisto inaugurating the Helsinki Music Centre’s 124 stop Rieger Organ. Shadow Volumes, a new work for solo organ by Edmund Finnis is planned for 2025/26 season.

He is a member of Icelandic collective and record label Bedroom Community, on which he has released three albums: Cycles (2013, works by Nico Muhly), Cycles_1 (2016, a remix album) & Counterpoint (2021) which pairs music of J S Bach & Philip Glass. The Grid (2018) is a studio album of music by Philip Glass using organ samples on Orange Mountain Music. All Night Chroma featuring music by Tom Jenkinson/Squarepusher, recorded at the organ of the Royal Festival Hall in London was released on Warp Records in 2019.

McVinnie starts a year long residency at London’s Southbank Centre in March 2024 with two performances in the Royal Festival Hall’s ‘Organ at 70’ celebrations. Further solo and James McVinnie Ensemble concerts are planned for June 2024 and 2024/25 season.

Five minutes that will make you love the organ — New York Times

Voix Celestes by Tom Jenkinson at RFH

Counterpoint out now on Bedroom Community

‘It’s musicians like organist and sound sculptor James McVinnie who can help shift mindsets. McVinnie’s music on ‘Counterpoint’ draws from the past in order to take anyone who listens somewhere daringly new…’ (Backseat Mafia)