Dr. Gerard Gillen is Professor Emeritus in Music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 at the National University of Ireland

National University of Ireland

The National University of Ireland , , is a federal university system of constituent universities, previously called constituent colleges, and recognised colleges set up under the Irish Universities Act, 1908, and significantly amended by the Universities Act, 1997.The constituent universities are...

, Maynooth

Maynooth

Maynooth is a town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to a branch of the National University of Ireland, a Papal University and Ireland's main Roman Catholic seminary, St. Patrick's College...

, having retired from the position of Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 and Head of the Music Department of that university at the end of September 2007. He came to NUI Maynooth in 1985, previously having been a lecturer

Lecturer

Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...

 in music for sixteen years at University College, Dublin

University College Dublin

University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

. Professor Gillen has overseen the expansion of the Music Department in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, for example, new diplomas in Music Technology

Music technology

Music technology is a term that refers to all forms of technology involved with the musical arts, particularly the use of electronic devices and computer software to facilitate playback, recording, composition, storage and performance. This subject is taught at many different educational levels,...

 and Church Music

Church music

Church music may be defined as music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclestiacal liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. This article covers music in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For sacred music outside this...

. He also directed the University Choral Society from October 1985 until April 2007.

Gillen is a first-class honours graduate of University College Dublin

University College Dublin

University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

 and Oxford.

Professor Gillen's interest lie in the areas of Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 church music, organ building and performance practice. He was honoured as the John Betts Fellow in 1992 at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 and since 1993 he has been chair of the Irish Episcopal Commission's Advisory Committee on Church Music.

He is also the general editor (with Harry White of UCD) of the bi-annual Irish Musical Studies.

Books

• Gerard Gillen (with Harry White), ed. Irish Musical Studies I: Musicology in Ireland (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990)

• Gerard Gillen (with Harry White), ed. Irish Musical Studies II: Music and the Church (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1992)

• Gerard Gillen (with Harry White), ed. Irish Musical Studies III: Music and Irish Cultural History (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1995)

• Gerard Gillen (with Andrew Johnstone), ed. Irish Musical Studies VI: A Historical Anthology of Irish Church Music (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001)

• ‘Contemporary Organ Building in Ireland’, The Organ – An Encyclopaedia, eds. D Bush & R. Kassel (New York: Routledge, 2006) pp. 271–273

• ‘An Instrument for Harmony: How should we think about Church Music?’ Religious Life Review, (March/April, 2006), pp. 116–123

• ‘The Pipe Organ: a centuries-old heritage’, New Liturgy, Summer, 2006, pp. 15–16

• ‘Children in Irish Liturgical Life’, New Liturgy, Spring, 2005, pp. 11–17

• ‘Towards a Definition of ‘’Good’’ Liturgical Music’, Anail Dé: The Breath of God – Music, Ritual and Spirituality, ed. Helen Phelan (Veritas: Dublin, 2001) pp. 189–200

• ‘Irish Catholics and Hymns’, The Furrow (October, 2000), pp. 548–556

• ‘Seoirse Bodley
  Seóirse Bodley
  Seóirse Bodley is an Irish composer and former associate professor of music at University College Dublin . He has been Saoi of Aosdána since 2008.-Biography:...
  
  ’, ‘Brian Boydell
  Brian Boydell
  Brian Boydell was an Irish composer whose works include orchestral pieces, chamber music, and songs. He was professor of music at Trinity College, Dublin for 20 years, founder of the Dowland Consort, conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players, and a prolific broadcaster and writer on musical...
  
  ’, ‘Jerome de Bromhead’, ‘John Buckley’, Edward Bunting’, ‘Charles Petrie’, ‘Roman Catholic Church Music’, The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture, ed. W.J. McCormack (Basil Blackwell: Oxford, 1999)

• ‘Looking back, looking forward’, New Liturgy, Summer, 1998, pp. 5–11

• ‘William Telford and the Victorian Organ in Ireland’, Irish Musical Studies II: Music and the Church , ed. Gerard Gillen and Harry White (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1992), pp. 108–129

• ‘Church Music in Dublin, 1590-1900’, Four Centuries of Music in Ireland, ed. Brian Boydell
  Brian Boydell
  Brian Boydell was an Irish composer whose works include orchestral pieces, chamber music, and songs. He was professor of music at Trinity College, Dublin for 20 years, founder of the Dowland Consort, conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players, and a prolific broadcaster and writer on musical...
  
   (London: BBC, 1979), pp. 23–28

• ‘17th-century Organ Music: New Editions’, The Musical Times, cxvi (1975), pp. 172–173

• ‘New Organ Music”, The Musical Times, cxv (1974), pp. 981–982

• ‘The Organ Music of Franz Liszt, The Musical Times, cxiii (1972), pp. 182-183

• ‘Hassler and Contemporaries’, The Musical Times, cxiii (1972), pp. 1017–1018

• ‘New Organ Music”, The Musical Times, cxiii (1972), p. 711

• ‘The Rieger
  Rieger Orgelbau
  Rieger Orgelbau is an Austrian firm of organ builders, known generally as Rieger. The firm was founded by Franz Rieger. From 1873 it was known as Rieger & Söhne, and from 1879 as Gebrüder Rieger, after his sons took over. At the end of World War II, the firm was nationalised by the Czech government...
  
   Organ in St. Michael’s Church, Dún Laoghaire’, Music and Liturgy, I ii (1975), pp. 98–100

• ‘The Training of Organists and Choirmasters’, The Furrow, (Music Supplement), (1969).

• ‘The Organ in Bray, Co. Wicklow: an organist’s evaluation’, Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, v (1981), pp. 121–126

Performance

Gillen enjoys an international reputation as an organ recitalist and has given recitals at such prestigious international venues as the Royal Festival Hall, London, McEwan Hall, Edinburgh, Ulster Hall, Belfast, cathedrals of Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Canterbury, Notre Dame, Paris, St Stephen's, Vienna, Salzburg, Regensburg, Freiburg, Hamburg, Lübeck, St Bavo, Haarlem, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Copenhagen, Madrid, and Tallinn.

Gillen was founder-chairman of the Dublin International Organ & Choral Festival and was the festival's artistic director from 1990-2000. He was also consultant to the National Concert Hall in Dublin on the installation of the Hall's Kenneth Jones concert organ in 1991 and remains one of the Hall's honorary organ curators.

Broadcast Recordings and Discography

Gillen has had many recitals recorded and broadcast by various national radio networks: RTÉ, BBC, RTF (France), BRT (Belgium), Nord Deutsche Rundfunk, Mittel-Deutsche Rundfung, RAI , Estonian National Radio, and American Public Service Radio.

Gillen plays the 1869 Walker organ of St Audoen’s, Dublin, LP NIR, 1971. He also played Buxtehude

Dieterich Buxtehude

Dieterich Buxtehude was a German-Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services...

 and Walther on the Chapel Organ of Trinity College, Dublin, LP NIR, 1972. He has made many other recordings.

Selected Public Recitals 2000-2010

2010

Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church

2009

Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church

2008
Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church
2007

Dun Laoighre, St. Michael's Church

2006

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 27 September

Spišska Nova Ves (Slovakia), Festival, 13 September

Kosice (Slovakia), Philharmonic Hall, 12 September

Dublin, National Concert Hall, recital as part of NCH’s 25th anniversary celebrations, 8 September

New York, St Patrick’s Cathedral, 29 August

Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 20 August

Carrick-on-Shannon, Water Music festival, 13 August

Castletownshend, Summer Music Festival, 3 August

Monasterevan, Hopkins Summer School, 28 July

Lyon, St Bonaventure Basilica, 7 May

Paris, La Madeleine, 30 April

Luxembourg, Dudelange Celtic Festival, 9 March

2005

Ruzamberak Catholic University, Slovakia, Conference Recital, 21 October

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 7 September

Wales, St Davids Cathedral, 24 August

Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 21 August

Graz, Cathedral, 14 August

Legnica (Polaqnd), Cathedral, 19 July

Wroclaw, University Church, 17 July

Swieta Lipka, Festival Recital, 15 July

Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral, 11 May

Waterford, Christ Church Cathedral, 10 March

Oxford, The Queen’s College, 23 February

2004

Dublin, National Concert Hall, 5 December (with Palestrina Choir)

Sardinia, Cagliari, S. Francesca de Paulo, 23 October

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 8 September

Hamburg, Wohltorf Kirche, 4 September

Schleswig Holstein, Neuenkirchen, 3 September

Copenhagen, Vor Frue Cathedral, 28 August

Denmark, Randers Church, 26 August

Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 15 August

Bratislava, St Martin’s Cathedral, 30 June

Tullamore, Church of the Assumption, 22 June

Bratislava Castle, official recital to mark the accession of Slovakia to the EU, 4 May

Dublin, St Patrick’s Cathedral, 28 April

London, St Lawrence Jewry (City), 16 March

Rome, S. Paulo entre la mura, 29 February

2003

Dublin, National Concert Hall, 10 December (with Palestrina Choir)

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 24 September

Zilina (Slovakia), S. Barbera, 4 September

Piestany (Slovakia), Concert Hall, 2 September

Trnava (Slovakia), Cathedral Festival, 28 August

Kosice, St Elizabeth Cathedral, 26 August

Leipzig, St Thomas’s Church, 23 August

Torgau, Schloss und Stadt Kirche, 22 August

Potsdam, Erlöserkirche, 20 August

Schleswig Holstein, Sieseby Kirche, 18 August

Limburg/Lahn, Cathedral Series, 16 August

Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 10 August

Tullamore, Church of the Assumption, 17 June

Dublin, St Agatha’s, North William Street, Inaugural Recital, 15 May

2002

Limerick, Redemptorist Church, 20 November

Turin, Basilica Santa Rita, 28 October

Fossano, Cathedral festival, 27 October

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 4 September

Dublin, St Michael’s, Dun Laoghaire, 18 August

Killaloe, Shannon Festival, 20 July

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, International Organ festival Vesper, 28 June

Augusta, Georgia, Distinguished Artists’ series, 2 May

Hannibal, Missouri, First Presbyterian Church, 28 April

2001

Dublin, National Concert Hall

National Concert Hall

The National Concert Hall is a concert hall located on Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin, Ireland, close to St. Stephen's Green, and is the principal national venue for classical music concerts in Ireland....

, 27 September

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 19 September

Schleswig Holstein, St Peter-Ording, 9 September

Schleswig Holstein, Keitum/Sylt, 5 September

Hamburg, Harsefeld, Kirche, 3 September

Copenhagen, Garrison Church, 29 August

Schleswig Holstein, St Laurentius, Itzehoe, 25 August

Denmark, Randers Church, 21 August

Galway, Cathedral of the Assumption, 16 August

Denmark, Bornholm, Rønne Church Church, 10 August

Strassbourg, St Pierre-le-Jeune, 15 July

Vienna, Stefansdom, 11 July

Sens (France), Cathedral, 8 July

Munich, University Church, 26 June

Cork, St Finbarr’s Cathedral, 22 May

Frankfurt/Main, St Nikolai (Bergen-Enkheim), 23 March

2000

Dublin, National Concert Hall, 12 December (with Palestrina Choir)

Dublin, Pro-Cathedral, 6 September

Wexford, Rowe Street Church, 6 August

Mühlhausen, Divi Blasii Church, 1 June

Limerick, Mary Immaculate College, 3 May

Kilrush, St Senan’s Church, Inaugural recital, 28 April

Copenhagen, St David’s Church, 27 February

Copenhagen, Kastrup Church, 26 February