Organist, St Paul's Manuka
Harpsichordist
Carillonist
Commemoration » John Barrett
Mr Barrett was a friend to SCUNA, well-known to many of SCUNA's founding members, and subsequently to those who sang in the St Paul's Organ Fund recitals.
Mr John Barrett, the organist and choirmaster of St Paul's Anglican Church, Manuka, died at Woden Valley Hospital on Saturday morning [29/1/83]. He was 67.
Mr Barrett had been due to retire yesterday as organist at St Paul's after 20 years' service.
His involvement with church music was long and varied, beginning at the age of 7, when he learnt to play the organ.
After six years' war service in the Australian Imperial Forces, he worked his way to England on a cargo ship. From 1947 to 1953 he studied all facets of church music at the Royal School of Church Music. For three of these years he was also a member of the Canterbury Cathedral Choir.
When he returned to Australia, he held a number of posts in Melbourne and, before his appointment at St Paul's, was choirmaster at St Andrew's Anglican Church in Brighton, Victoria, for several years.
From 1962 to 1975 he was head of music at Canberra Grammar School. He was the deputy Canberra carillonist, having performed between 40 and 50 recitals each year for the past 10 years.
He is survived by his wife Jean, principal cellist in the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and four children.
A memorial service will be held at 11am on Saturday, at St Paul's Church.
[Photo caption: Mr Barrett]
- The Canberra Times 31/1/83
Canberra's carillon is rated "top class" and properly tuned by its deputy carillonist, Mr John Barrett, who has just returned from two months in Europe and the US.
He gave his assessment yesterday after rendering 'Waltzing Matilda' on the bells, a performance which has brought him invitations for return visits overseas.
One listener yesterday was the City Manager, Mr Lyall Gillespie, who had come to discuss his tour.
Mr Barrett has sampled some of the best carillons in the world. Canberra was "no kid stakes. A top-class carillon with the bells properly tuned".
Travelling with his wife, Jean, who is assistant principal cellist in the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Mr Barrett played in castles, churches, cathedrals and town halls in West Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Belgium. They visited bell foundries in Austria, Holland and Norway and the Royal "Jef Denyn" Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium.
The high note of the tour was the congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, at Iowa State University, in late June. Mr Barrett played music by Australian composers John Gordon and Terry Vaughan and his own transcriptions of songs such as 'Click go the shears' and 'Botany Bay'.
Between recitals in the Canberra carillon, and infrequent overseas forays, Mr Barrett teaches music and plays the organ for St Paul's, Manuka.
- The Canberra Times 31/7/80
I found these articles using Trove and accessed the originals at the National Library of Australia.