Dr Ron Newton

Ron’s performance degree was through the University of Canterbury, studying with Graham Hollobon and Martin Setchell. He has since served as Organist and Director of Music at parish churches, and as Music Tutor in schools, in Christchurch, Wanganui, Auckland and California. In 1989 he was Assistant Organist at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland. He has taught the organ to many students over the past two decades, given recitals in New Zealand, Spain and California, and has also conducted tours of historic churches and organs for the Historic Places Trust and other groups. He has more recently performed and recorded with the Dunedin Sinfonia, the Dunedin City Choir, and the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin. His work as an organ recitalist is growing, and is invited to give concerts throughout New Zealand..

Ron Newton. Paul Clarkson (1982).

A cultural exchange scholarship to the San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1985 was the catalyst for a change in emphasis, with the completion of two masters-level papers in musicology at the University of California, at Berkeley. His return saw the beginnings of extensive research into New Zealand organ builders and their work, with BA(Hons) papers in music research at Canterbury, and the publication of Organa Cantuariensia.

He graduated PhD in Music in 1999, his thesis being Organ Building in New Zealand 1895-1930: A Documentation of Cultural Context.

Other writings on this website include a series of articles on the organ and organist in reformed worship, the influence of the ecclesiological movement on pipe organ design in Canterbury and the programme notes for the Waitaki Boys' High School 125th anniversary recital.