John Kitchen

Kitchen is the Edinburgh City Organist, with related duties at Usher Hall. He is the University Organist and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and serves as Director of the Edinburgh University Singers He is also involved with the preservation, expansion and demonstration to the public of the collection of early keyboard instruments at St Cecilia's Hall in Edinburgh He is the Director of Music of Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church. He was appointed MBE in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Kitchen earned the Master of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees at Glasgow University. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the University of Cambridge where he researched 17th-century French harpsichord music. His doctoral thesis (approved 1980) was titled "Harpsichord music of seventeenth century France: the forms, their origins and developments, with particular emphasis on the work of Louis Couperin (1626–1661)". While at Cambridge, he was organ scholar of Clare College, and studied the organ with Gillian Weir. From 1976 until 1988 he was a Lecturer in Music and University Organist at the University of St Andrews. From 1988 to 2014 he was Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Edinburgh, teaching harmony, counterpoint, keyboard skills, history and performance practice at all levels. Kitchen has a Fellowship Diploma (FRCO) from the Royal College of Organists, and he is a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM).

John Philip Kitchen MBE (born 27 October 1950) is a Scottish organist, conductor, early music scholar, and music educator based in Edinburgh. He serves as the Edinburgh City Organist. Kitchen is known for his extensive recording portfolio of organ music, and his research and demonstration of historical keyboard instruments, He made major contributions to the discography and scholarship on the organ works of William Russell, and Johann Ludwig Krebs.

Kitchen has studied and recorded the complete Organ Voluntaries of the organist William Russell (1777–1813) on the Delphian Label. The recording took place in 2008 on the restored 1829 J.C. Bishop organ at St. James, Bermondsey. As part of this project, Kitchen authored a detailed essay about Russell and his music, with information about every single Voluntary (including the disposition of the organ and the registration of the Voluntary)

Kitchen recorded recitals that introduce and explore different organs, including the organ at Usher Hall (Edinburgh); the organ at McEwan Hall (University of Edinburgh); the Reid Concert Hall (University of Edinburgh); the 1769 Pascal Taskin harpsichord; and instruments from the Rodger Mirrey and Raymond Russell collections.

Kitchen has studied and recorded the complete organ works of Baroque composer Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713–1780). These recordings (on the Priory Records label) were made in 2000–2001 on several different organs, including the two-manual Frobenius organ of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.