Robert Ampt
Robert Ampt is the Sydney City Organist, organist/choirmaster of Sydney's German Lutheran Church, past President of the Organ Music Society of Sydney, Patron of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia and an organ teacher at St Andrew’s Cathedral School.
An Associate Artist at the Australian Music Centre, he has published organ and other instrumental music, as well as choral music, on the Birralee Publishing label.
He has produced audio recordings on the ABC, Move, Woodward and Priory labels, and a video recording on the Marcom label performing Guilmant's Symphony No.1 in D minor. Robert, together with his wife, Sydney University Organist and Carillonist Amy Johansen, has developed two specialities - the presentation of children's Introduction to the Organ programs and the playing of organ duets.
Robert organizes, and also performs in, the popular Lunchtime Organ Concerts in the Sydney Town Hall and is the creator of the annual Christmas at the Sydney Town Hall, an event which always sells out. His recent performances have taken him around Australia as well as to New Zealand and the Unites States.
In recent years at the Town Hall he has been the organist for the high-profile commemoration ceremonies in honour of Neville Wran, Tom Uren and Gough Whitlam.
As a writer, he is a regular contributor to Australian organ journals, has published a highly acclaimed history of the Sydney Town Hall organ, and has written original scripts for children’s programs.
His additional interests include being a father, gardening, house restoration (he lives in a 1905 weatherboard house in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney) and the Sydney Swans.