Paolo Bordignon is harpsichordist of the New York Philharmonic and organist and choirmaster of St. Bartholomew’s Church, Park Avenue. 2023-24 appearances include concerti with The Philadelphia Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra, and performances with Camerata Pacifica, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Company, and The Knights, among others.

Harpsichord

As a harpsichordist Paolo Bordignon has recently performed with the MET Orchestra Musicians, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, All-Star Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, ECCO, as well as a 2018 Trans-Siberian Arts Festival tour with the Sejong Soloists.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has collaborated with Sir James Galway, Itzhak Perlman, Reinhard Goebel, Paul Hillier, Bobby McFerrin, and Midori, as well as Renée Fleming and Wynton Marsalis in a Juilliard Gala. For the opening of Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, he performed Philip Glass’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. He has also appeared in solo performance for New York Fashion Week.

Festival appearances include Aspen, Bard, Bay Chamber, Blossom, Bridgehampton, Grand Tetons, Palm Beach, Ravinia, and Vail. He has recorded for Warner Classics, Universal Music, NAXOS, Manta, MSR, Tuneful Oasis, Red Bandana, and Eusonia Records. He has appeared on NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, NPR (including Pipedreams and Performance Today), the CBC, and on Korean and Japanese national television.

Paolo has worked with composers such as Elliott Carter (performing Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano for his 90th birthday celebration), David Conte, Jean Guillou, Stephen Hartke, Christopher Theophanides, Melinda Wagner, and Michi Wiancko. With the Clarion Music Society, he gave the first modern performances of several newly-rediscovered chamber works of Felix Mendelssohn.

 

Organ & Church Music

Paolo has performed organ recitals at venues such as St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York and St. Eustache in Paris, and he has been a regular organ recitalist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including a 10-recital residency. He has been recently presented in recital at the Met, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland (OR), St. Bartholomew’s Church, Marble Collegiate Church, and St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church Wall Street.

As Organist and Choirmaster of St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York, he directs St. Bartholomew’s Choir, St. Bart’s Singers, serves as principal organist, and oversees one of the nation’s pre-eminent church music programs. He previously served as Associate Director of Music for nine years, directing the Boy & Girl Choristers and playing the Aeolian-Skinner organs of the Chapel and Church, the latter being one of the world’s largest musical instruments. A recent appearance on Now Hear This, presented by PBS Great Performances, was hailed as “among the highlights of the show” by the Wall Street Journal.

In a 2022 Gala Organ Concert presented by St. Bartholomew’s Conservancy, Paolo was featured soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, led by David Robertson, with a guest appearance by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.

 

Studies

At the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Paolo studied organ with John Weaver and harpsichord with Lionel Party. He earned Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in harpsichord from The Juilliard School. Doctoral studies brought him to Leipzig and Berlin, where he examined the manuscript and original performance materials of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ.

Paolo is an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, having won the major prizes. While an undergraduate, he was on the roster offering twice-daily concerts on Philadelphia’s Wanamaker organ, the world’s largest operational pipe organ.

Born in Toronto of Italian heritage, Paolo studied organ with Brian Rae and John Tuttle. He attended St. Michael’s Cathedral Choir School, an affiliate of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, where his mentors included Msgr. Thomas Barrett Armstrong. At age 17, Paolo was appointed Associate Organist of St. Michael's Cathedral, seat of Canada’s largest Archdiocese, assuming service-playing responsibilities for the choral services.