The Lady Organist in Winter – Stable Girl Style
Stable Girls are expected to turn out morning and evening, in all weathers, to perform repetitive tasks for dismal amounts of money – sounds familiar? This winter I’ve discovered a whole untapped aspect of my wardrobe, perfect for winter organ…
Organ lessons over the internet – yes it works
Organ lessons can sometimes be like doctor’s appointments – you have your allotted time, and leave with half a dozen questions still hanging in your head. When Neil Cockburn, Head of Organ Studies at Mount Royal University Conservatory in Calgary,…
Create an organist (or just have a good day out) – The Great North Organ Day
Do you know anyone – of any age – who you think might secretly hanker after playing the pipe organ? Who lives in the north of England? The Great North Organ Day hits Newcastle on Saturday 17th May. Based around…
RCO Easter Course 2014 – a lesson with Margaret Phillips
Slightly daunting to have a lesson on Bach with Margaret Phillips after her exemplary Bach recital the night before – and on the same organ too. But she was generous in sharing the registrations she used, and many other small…
Five Questions for…..James Parsons
James Parsons is teaching us in Oxford this week, and even persuaded us today that transposition and harmonisation at sight were great fun – well almost. He’s an enormously busy recitalist and teacher – organ tutor at the Birmingham Conservatoire…
More pedals-only repertoire
Pedal duets, music for pedals and percussion, insanely difficult variations and assorted pedal workouts – I’ve just published a follow-up to my popular first page of pedals-only repertoire. You can find it here.
Five questions for…Henry Fairs
Henry Fairs is Head of Organ Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire and Organist to the University of Birmingham, UK, and his musical career began as a chorister at Leominster Priory. After graduating he studied in France and Germany, and was a…
Five questions for…Anne Marsden Thomas
Anne Marsden Thomas is the Head of the RCO Academy Organ School, co-ordinating the activities of a team of teachers and the studies of around 300 organ students. In 1990 she was responsible for the National Learn the Organ Year,…
Five questions for…Neil Cockburn
Neil Cockburn is Head of Organ Studies at Mount Royal University Conservatory, Artistic Director of the Calgary Organ Festival, and Director of MRU Conservatory’s Purcell Ensemble. He is also the continuo-player and organist for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. I’m looking…
Five questions for…Roger Carter
Roger Carter studied with Sylvia Gostelow and Christopher Scarf and later with Richard Popplewell, gaining Fellowships from the Royal College of Organists and Trinity College of Music. His subsequent studies have taken him around Europe – in 1984 he was…
Five questions for…Simon Williams
Simon is Organist and Director of Music at St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, in the centre of London. Simon and the choir there broadcast regularly on BBC Radio3 and Radio4. He trained at Durham University and The Royal College…
Five questions for…Gerdi Troskie
Gerdi Troskie is one of the RCO’s tutors, and the person most responsible for the improvements in my organ technique over the past two years. She studied post-graduate with the early music specialist Jacques van Oortmerssen at the Amsterdam Conservatorium, …
Something more dramatic for the feet
I’ve been following Michael Johnston of @michaelsmusic on Twitter for a while, and I had to share a recent tweet about his reprint of Dramatic Pedal Studies by Hamilton Crawford Macdougall (1858-1945) in which the parts given to the…
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