Nicholas Danby

{{Short description|British organist, recitalist and teacher}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Nicholas Danby

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| birth_date = 19 July 1935

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| death_date = {{d-da|15 June 1997|19 July 1935}}

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| education =

| occupation = {{plainlist|

• Organist
• Recitalist
• Teacher

}}

| organizations = {{plainlist|

• Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon
• Royal College of Music
• Royal Academy of Music

}}

| title =

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}}

Nicholas Danby (19 July 1935 – 15 June 1997){{cite web |url=https://list.uiowa.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=piporg-L;822fe509.9707A |title=Nicholas Danby |last=Russill |first=Patrick |work=The Times |year=1997}} was a British organist, recitalist and teacher. He was a great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens and nephew of Monica Dickens."Memorial Services", The Daily Telegraph page 15, 30 January 1993 Danby was an Organ Professor at both the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was head of Organ Studies from 1989 to 1996. For over thirty years he was Director of Music at the London Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, Mayfair. Throughout his life, Nicholas Danby worked ceaselessly to promote international and cultural exchange.

Danby did secondary studies at Beaumont College, Old Windsor.{{cite web | url=https://www.organ-biography.info/index.php?id=Danby_Nicholas_1935 | title=Nicholas Danby | last=Henshaw | first=W.B. | publisher=Organ Biography | accessdate=16 July 2019}} He was apprenticed to the Belgian {{ill|Guy Weitz|de}}, who was organist of the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, in Mayfair, London. Danby succeeded him in this position, where he re-founded a professional choir and remained until his death. From 1963 to 1965 he was also Director of Music at Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon.{{cite web |url=https://www.sacredheartmusic.co.uk/choirs/ |title=Sacred Heart Music |publisher=Church of the Sacred Heart, Wimbledon | accessdate=26 November 2019}}

Danby taught the organ at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music and was head of the organ department of the latter from 1989 to 1996.{{cite web | url=http://www.orgues-chartres.org/nicholas-danby/?lang=en | title=Nicholas Danby | publisher=Grandes Orgues de Chartres Association | accessdate=16 July 2019}}{{cite web | url=https://www.ram.ac.uk/whats-on/event/the-nicholas-danby-trust-at-the-royal-academy-of-music-recital-by-andrzej-malitowski-nicholas-danby-scholar-20172019 | title=The Nicholas Danby Trust at the Royal Academy of Music | publisher=Royal Academy of Music | accessdate=16 July 2019}} Among his students were Robert Costin,{{cite web | url=https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Costin-Robert.htm | title=Robert Costin (Organ) | publisher=Bach Cantatas Website | last=Oron | first=Ayreh | accessdate=16 July 2019}} Paul Hale,{{cite web |url=http://trinitycollegechoir.com/organ/organ-music-evensong/paul-hale/ |title=Paul Hale |publisher=Trinity College, Cambridge |accessdate=26 November 2019}} Patrick Russill,{{cite web |url=https://www.ram.ac.uk/about-us/staff/patrick-russill |title=Patrick Russill, Head of Choral Conducting |publisher=Royal Academy of Music |accessdate=26 November 2019}} Roger Sayer,{{cite web |url=https://www.lsc.org.uk/chorus-director/ |title=Chorus Accompanist / Deputy Chorus Director – Roger Sayer |publisher=London Symphony Chorus |accessdate=26 November 2019}} Paul Trepte, Andrew Wilson-Dickson and Julian Perkins. He was also an internationally renowned organ recitalist and was a jury member at international competitions.

He recorded organ works by Dieterich Buxtehude on the Baroque organ at St Laurents in Alkmaar.{{cite web | last=Massey | first=Dave | url=http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/products/Nicholas_Danby_Dietrich_Buxtehude/The_Organ/10986/ | title=Nicholas Danby, Dietrich Buxtehude - The Organ | website=Cross Rhythms | date=1 June 1991 | accessdate=26 November 2019}} His "Bach Organ Works" recording (SMK 64239) for Sony Classical Records was very well received by Gramophone: "Danby's registrations are clearly designed to give a comprehensive picture of the instrument's tonal resources […]. His performances are thoroughly rewarding; sensitive but never overindulgent in the smaller pieces, strong, enormously self-assured in the larger works."{{cite web | url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/bach-organ-works-4 |title=Bach Organ Works |publisher=Gramophone |date=May 1995 |accessdate=26 November 2019}} He recorded the complete organ works by Johannes Brahms.{{cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10719348 |title=The Complete Organ Music |year=1982 |publisher=WorldCat |oclc=10719348 |accessdate=26 November 2019}} A reviewer noted that he was "an organist who put musicality above effect and for whom the organ was a servant of the music rather than of its own aural effects".{{cite web | last=Rochester | first=Marc | url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Oct/Brahms_organ_3404.htm | title=Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) / The Complete Organ Music | website=musicweb-international.com | date=Oct 2016 | accessdate=26 November 2019}}

After Danby's death, a foundation was set up, The Nicholas Danby Trust, selecting a laureate annually in order to grant them an international scholarship.