Many brilliant organists have performed at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Fort Worth, but the next recitalist is a musical multi-tasker on a truly global scale. Paul Griffiths is the British organ sensation with an interesting day job. He is chief executive officer of Dubai Airports.
On Friday, June 14th at 7:30 pm, Griffiths will present a program with a decidedly French air featuring composers Debussy, Duruflé and Saint-Saëns.
Admission is free, and a reception for everyone will follow the concert.
Five days after playing at All Saints’, Griffiths will perform at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. In February, he played the organ for 130,000 people at the Papal Mass given by Pope Francis during his historic visit to the Arabian Peninsula. He has performed at Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and many other cathedrals in the UK.
Griffiths began playing at the age of 10, winning first prize in the London Musical Competition Festival at 13. He performs regularly as an organ recitalist and continuo player and today is vice president of the Royal College of Organists.
He combines his international recital career with his role as Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Airports, responsible for the operation and development of Dubai International (DXB) as well as Dubai World Central (DWC), which will eventually be the world’s largest airport with capacity to handle up to 240 million passengers and 16 million tons of freight annually.
Prior to moving to Dubai, he was Managing Director of London’s Gatwick Airport, the second largest airport in the UK. Previously, he spent 14 years as an Executive Director of Virgin Atlantic and the Virgin Rail Group.
In 2015, Griffiths was appointed as a Companion in the Order of St. Michael and St. George in the Queen’s Birthday Honour List, for services to British prosperity overseas and to music. He has three children and lives in Dubai, London, and Sussex. His wife, Joanna Marsh, is an organist and composer of choral and orchestral works. Their Sussex home contains the largest classical pipe organ in a private home in the UK.