George Ritchie is an American organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

. His teachers included Helmut Walcha

Helmut Walcha

Helmut Walcha was a blind German organist who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters and is known for his recordings of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.- Biography :Born in Leipzig, Walcha was blinded at age 19 after vaccination for smallpox...

, and like Walcha he is best known for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's music. Ritchie has recorded Bach's complete organ works, and his recording of Bach's Art of Fugue was reviewed in Gramophone Magazine as 'the finest recording of the Art of Fugue irrespective of media or instrument'. This recording also includes Ritchie's performance of Walcha's completion of the unfinished final fugue. He discusses this recording in the documentary film Desert Fugue

Desert Fugue

Desert Fugue is a 90 minute documentary film about Johann Sebastian Bach's Art of Fugue. It was directed by Will Fraser and produced by Fugue State Films. It features organist George Ritchie, Bach scholar Christoph Wolff and organ builders Ralph Richards and Bruce Fowkes...

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External links

• http://www.fuguestatefilms.co.uk/aof