Profile of David Kinsela
Feel, skill and audacity are fundamental to real artistic achievement, and the greatest of these is feel. Good feel inheres in sensibility, sensuousness and responsibility. Of these elements are built the riches and dignity of mankind. — David Kinsela, after Francis Greenway
Early Life in New South Wales
• born Sans Souci in Sydney, 3rd June, 1941
• raised and schooled at Young, a richly-endowed town in mid-west New South Wales
• as a fourteen-year-old had a decisive encounter at the pipe organ with J.S. Bach
• trained in Sydney in English and French schools under Kenneth Long and Norman Johnston
• played the Poulenc Concerto in Sydney Town Hall on National TV
• qualified in civil and traffic engineering and erected the signs on Australia’s first expressway
• raised and schooled at Young, a richly-endowed town in mid-west New South Wales
• as a fourteen-year-old had a decisive encounter at the pipe organ with J.S. Bach
• trained in Sydney in English and French schools under Kenneth Long and Norman Johnston
• played the Poulenc Concerto in Sydney Town Hall on National TV
• qualified in civil and traffic engineering and erected the signs on Australia’s first expressway
Middle Years in Europe
• moved to Switzerland in 1967, the only Germanic society not shattered by world wars
• studied for five years at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Edward Müller
• experimented with 'paired fingerings' in ancient manner
• created a recital series, 'organ landscapes of the seventeenth century'
• lived in Canberra, Oxford and London and saved fine organs in Australia, England and Wales
• researched keyboard fingering for three years in the British Library
• worked as Traffic Management Supervisor for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• chauffeur guide for the London Tourist Board and lecturer in keyboard skills at King's College
• studied for five years at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Edward Müller
• experimented with 'paired fingerings' in ancient manner
• created a recital series, 'organ landscapes of the seventeenth century'
• lived in Canberra, Oxford and London and saved fine organs in Australia, England and Wales
• researched keyboard fingering for three years in the British Library
• worked as Traffic Management Supervisor for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• chauffeur guide for the London Tourist Board and lecturer in keyboard skills at King's College
Later Years in Sydney
• returned to Sydney in 1977 to consolidate discoveries in early performance practice
• established with Greg Young the N.S.W. Heritage Council Pipe Organ Advisory Committee
• published J.S. Bach editions in facsimile and presented two cycles of Bach's organ works
• promoted contemporary organ music through commissions and the anthology Organ Australis
• recreated with David Evans the gold-strung medieval clavicytherium
• identified in 1988 the nature of the first string-keyboard, the 14th-century chekker
• established in 2001 the taxonomy of early keyboard compass and launched the label organ.o
• established with Greg Young the N.S.W. Heritage Council Pipe Organ Advisory Committee
• published J.S. Bach editions in facsimile and presented two cycles of Bach's organ works
• promoted contemporary organ music through commissions and the anthology Organ Australis
• recreated with David Evans the gold-strung medieval clavicytherium
• identified in 1988 the nature of the first string-keyboard, the 14th-century chekker
• established in 2001 the taxonomy of early keyboard compass and launched the label organ.o