Tristan Russcher

Tristan is a freelance keyboard player and is in high demand as a collaborative pianist, organist and harpsichordist. Born in Australia, he moved to England to read music as an organ scholar at Worcester College, Oxford and study the organ with David Goode. He moved to Dublin in 2003 to work as an organist at Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedral’s. Now living in Belfast, he enjoys a freelance career working with the best musical ensembles on the island of Ireland.

As an organist Tristan has worked extensively in the Anglican cathedrals in Dublin and Belfast and was Assistant Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin from 2007 to 2010. He has performed as organ soloist in major orchestral works by Duruflé, Handel, Leighton, Poulenc, Rheinberger, Saint-Saens and Widor. In 2008 he performed the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in a week-long joint recital series with David Leigh. In 2012 he became only the seventh person to perform Francis Pott's epic two-hour organ symphony Christus, considered by many to be the 'Everest' of the organ repertoire, and gave the Northern Ireland premiere on the Mulholland organ in the Ulster Hall in the presence of the composer. In March 2023 he gave the Ede and Ravenscroft recital at the diploma conferment ceremony for the Royal College of Organists in Southwark Cathedral and in May 2023 he performed the organ solo in the Northern Ireland premiere of Neil Hannon's cantata To Our Fathers In Distress, in the Ulster Hall, with the Ulster Orchestra.

Tristan is in high demand as a collaborative pianist, having worked with Hard Rain, Irish National Opera, Lyric Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, NUI Maynooth, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Sestina, TU Dublin and the Ulster Orchestra. He has performed as piano soloist in major concerti by Bach, Beethoven, Gershwin, Grieg, Mozart and Shostakovich. He is fortunate to work closely with both NI Opera and the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin as a regular accompanist, répétiteur and vocal coach.

He was Director of Music at Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Dublin, from 2011 to 2021, leading a choir of over fifty singers at services and concerts and on national and international tours. He has broadcast with RTÉ Lyric FM and BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and recorded with numerous CD labels including Hyperion, Oxrecs, Priory and Signum.