John Bertalot obit

Organ world mourns transatlantic director of music

 

He was not on the list.

Blackburn Cathedral has conveyed the death today of John Bertalot, its Director of Music and Organist from 1964 to 1982.

Bertalot, who was 94, went on to serve for the next 15 years as Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton, New Jersey.

He wrote several books on choral singing, including ‘How to Be A Successfuil Choral Director’.

Bertalot was born in Maidstone, Kent, on 15 September 1931. He studied organ at the Royal College of Music and was an organ scholar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from 1955 to 1958. He served as organist of St Matthew's Church, Northampton, from 1958 to 1964 and of Blackburn Cathedral from 1964 to 1983 before moving to the United States, where he was organist of Trinity Church, Princeton, in New Jersey from 1983 to 1998.

Bertalot was the author of John Bertalot's Immediately Practical Tips for Choral Directors, Five Wheels to Successful Sight-Singing and How to be a Successful Choir Director.