Biography

Alexander Ffinch began his journey as a musician at school with piano lessons. He subsequently gained a place at the Royal College of Music to study both piano and organ and was later an organ scholar at Oxford University.

In 1990s Alexander was resident organist at Lancaster Town Hall where he gave over 100 recitals and alongside this, he was very fortunate to take lessons in Birmingham with Thomas Trotter. He subsequently gained recognition in St Albans Interpretation Competition in 1999 and has since performed extensively in UK, Europe, USA, and Asia.

Alexander’s professional history includes organist posts in both universities and schools, and today he is College Organist at Cheltenham College. As both performer and teacher at Cheltenham one of his daily duties is to play to over 700 students at the start of their day. Alexander has had to broaden his repertoire significantly and has not been afraid to occasionally break with traditional expectations to capture their attention. His daily offerings of organ music now include classical, film scores and sometimes even pop/rock and Disney arrangements. Along with his extensive repertoire of original organ music, this is essentially where he now sits in terms of his style and aesthetic as an organist.

In 2019, he released his début solo album Transformations recorded to celebrate the 2017 rebuild and restoration of the Cheltenham College organ. This album features both large scale symphonic and contemporary works including Liszt’s Fantasia and Fugue ‘Ad nos ad salutarem undam’ and a première recording of The Dancing Pipes by Jonathan Dove. Garnering a five star review in Choir and Organ, this disc was described as ‘…a very fine Recording.’ in Gramophone Magazine.

Alexander’s second album Parallels followed in 2024. Selected repertoire here includes Florence Price’s Suite No.1 for Organ which is placed alongside other original suites for organ. The disc also contains arrangements of well-known music ranging from Holst’s Jupiter, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance and as a nod to the present day, Alexander’s own arrangement of Coldplay’s hit single Paradise. Over the past eighteen months, the album has a received wide coverage both on radio and in reviews appearing on BBC R3 In Concert, Essential Classics and Breakfast shows, as well as Pipedreams and WRR101FM in America and Scala Radio (now Magic Classical) in UK.

Alexander’s next album Expectations is due for release with Divine Art Recording Group in January 2026. His concert diary presently includes recitals in Notre Dame and La Madaleine in Paris as well as regular series appearances in Cheltenham and other concerts in both UK and USA.