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A first for Australia!
Thomas Heywood is the first Australian musician in history to live as a professional concert organist.
Thomas Heywood is arranging and performing the complete Beethoven Symphonies for concert organ solo!
For the first time in history, Thomas Heywood is arranging and performing the complete Beethoven Symphonies for concert organ solo. This is the first time a solo concert performer has attempted such an incredible feat!
This unique achievement marks the beginning of a new era in concert organ music. An enraptured audience of over 2,000 people gave Heywood’s world premiere performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony a standing ovation and three encores at the Opening Solo Concert on Australia’s new Melbourne Town Hall Grand Concert Organ. At his Concert Organ Spectacular on 9 September 2001, Heywood’s world premiere performance of Beethoven’s First Symphony in C major was met with another standing ovation and thunderous applause! Thomas Heywood’s series of Beethoven’s complete symphonies makes the most significant contribution to the concert organ repertoire since the death of virtuoso concert organist Edwin H. Lemare in 1934. The complete Beethoven Symphonies are being published by Hillwood Publishing. Symphony No. 5 in C minor is available now.
Thomas Heywood and the previous ‘Golden Age’ of the Concert Organ!
Thomas Heywood’s research interests are in the repertoire, performers and organs of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially the previous ‘Golden Age’ of the Concert Organ between 1840 and 1930.
For three years from 1992 Heywood made the one of the first comprehensive studies of the work of W.T. Best, acclaimed as the greatest 19th-century concert organist; Heywood compiled a complete catalogue of Best’s contribution to the repertoire, as well as undertaking an extensive study of Best’s life and character. He has also contributed to  The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, many of his articles have been published in magazines around the world, and his articles on W.T. Best have been published in the prestigious UK magazine Organists’ Review.
"Australia's Premier Organist"!
Since 1994, Thomas Heywood has performed more concerts in Australia than any other organist. Over the past ten years, Heywood has presented over 800 concerts around Australia to over 250,000 people.
Thomas Heywood and St John’s Church, Toorak, Australia
In May 1994 at only 20 years of age, Heywood was selected from dozens of Australian and overseas applicants for the coveted position of Organist and Director of Music of St John’s Church, Toorak – Australia’s busiest and most celebrated Anglican church. Located in Australia’s most exclusive residential area, many of Australia’s most famous musicians have served at Toorak over the last 140 years. Presiding over the renowned 1913 William Hill & Son organ, Heywood’s work at Toorak included directing the Choir and playing for over 400 services, weddings and funerals each year. Heywood resigned from St John’s Church, Toorak in 2001 as the demands of his concert career necessitated a full-time commitment.
Over 50 years later!
In 1994, the City of Melbourne presented 20 year-old Thomas Heywood in a year-long series of Grand Organ Concerts at Australia’s Melbourne Town Hall – the first time such a solo series had been presented for over fifty years since the resignation of the last Melbourne City Organist in 1938. Performing lunchtime concerts on the grandest organ in Australia, Heywood reached out to thousands of people and began to build his immense repertoire of the finest concert organ music.
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