Born in London in 1966, PETER BANNISTER began his

musical training with David de Warrenne (piano) and

Helen Roy (singing). He obtained an Master’s Degree in
musicology from King’s College Cambridge, subsequently
studying in Paris with Geneviève Ibanez, Michel Beroff
(piano) and the composer/organist Naji Hakim. His
awards at national and international level as a composer
and performer include the Prix André Caplet for
composition from the Institut de France (1999) as well as
prizes at the Chartres and Nuremberg international organ
improvisation competitions and three awards at the
International Composition Competition in San Sebastian
in 2007. After several years working in opera (Opéra
National de Paris, Théâtre de Châtelet, Festival d’Aix-en-
Provence), assisting conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle,
James Conlon, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and Jukka-Pekka
Saraste, he currently lives and works in France as a freelance musician.

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, Saarländischer Rundfunk,
Bourges, Chartres, Chichester, Frankfurt, Münster, Oliwa, Trieste, Ulm Cathedrals, Würzburger
Bachtage, Ensemblia Festival Mönchengladbach) and North America. 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; in September 2013 he directed his Breathe in Me at the Paris-Bercy Arena.
Recent and current projects include 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 March 2016, an Ave Maria in memory of Greco-Italian composer Marco Sofianopulo
(1952-2014) performed in a series of concerts in Notre-Dame de Paris; a Miserere for voice and
orchestra premièred with the Finnish soprano Tuuli Lindeberg in April 2017, an extended Ecumenical
Magnificat for soloists, choir and orchestra (Heilbronn, October 2017) and a work for New York
clarinettist David Gould (with whom he played on the 2014 duo CD The Forgotten Clarinet) to be
performed at the International ClarinetFest in Ostende in July 2018.

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),
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 founded by American conductor John Nelson devoted to furthering classical
sacred music in the Biblical tradition. He presently lives in Cluny in Burgundy and serves as an
organist with the Taizé Community.