On the 28th of June 2024, I had the pleasure of performing a recital at the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua (Basilica di Sant’Antonio di Padova) during the eighth edition of the Bologna Summer Organ Festival organised by the music association, “Fabio da Bologna”....
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Autobiographical Recollections of Charles-Marie Widor Edited and translated by John R. Near Boydell and Brewer / University of Rochester Press, 2024 ISBN 9781648250866 / 298 pp / £85 (hard copy), £25 (ebook) Reviewed by Robert James Stove Brash to the nth degree will...
Jusepe Ximénez: Obra de Ileno de Premier Tono; Sacris Solemnis/Garcia Baylo (?), Pedro Pifant? (1473): Vexilla Regis/Andrés de sola: Registro alto de Primer Tono/Melchar Robledo: Domine Iesu Christe/Sebastián Aguillera de Heredia: Tiento grande de Cuarto Tono; La...
American organist and organ scholar of Westminster Abbey, Carolyn Craig has been appointed Junior Fellow at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University. She will take up the appointment in January 2024. Originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, and...
The third edition of the Dutch 'International Martini Organ Competition Groningen' (IMOCG) will take place in the summer of 2024, in the week of 28 July to 3 August in the Dutch town of Groningen. This time, the competition will feature three monumental organs. After...
Peter Dickinson died at the age of 88 on June 16, led a distinguished multifaceted career of over six decades as performer, academic, author and editor. His prolific writings and his compositional oeuvre in many genres radically espouse the postmodern aesthetic at the...
The International Kaija Saariaho Organ Composition Competition, organised to celebrate Helsinki Music Centre Concert Hall’s new Rieger organ that is to be finished in the autumn of 2023, received 98 participating compositions from all over the world. The jury, chaired...
The leading choral education programme in the United Kingdom expands to tackle declining engagement with music at state schools. Recently, the National Schools Singing Programme [NSSP], an ambitious music education initiative covering the majority of the UK’s Catholic...
The 11th Northern Ireland International Organ Competition (NIIOC) will take place in Armagh from 21–23 August 2023, returning to the cathedral city where it was founded for the first time since the pandemic. The competition jury will be chaired by the Canadian...
The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) and Society of Women Organists (SWO) are hosting a joint Come and Sing event, showcasing new music written by female composers, on Saturday July 15 at St Giles Cripplegate, London EC2Y 8DA. The workshop is led by Katherine...
Salisbury Cathedral School is proud to announce the launch of a new pipe organ scholarship programme, the first in a UK preparatory school. The new ‘Griffiths Chapel Organ Scholarships’, will support two organ scholars during Upper Prep, school years 7 and 8,...
Jens Korndörfer leads a busy career as performer, educator, and church musician; he has performed to critical acclaim at prestigious venues and festivals such as Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, the Montreal Bach Festival, the Cathedrals in Washington, Berlin,...
Benjamin Sheen has accepted the post of Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge. He will join the College on 1 January 2023, succeeding Richard Pinel, who has been appointed Director of Music at St Mary’s Bourne Street in London. Ben currently holds the post of...
A two manual Vincent Woodstock practice instrument has been installed in the Song School at Peterborough Cathedral. The organ was constructed in 2011 and became available when its owner, Simon Johnson, moved from his role as Organist at St Paul’s Cathedral to become...
It is no secret that music education in the UK has suffered as a result of cuts in budgets, and the pandemic has only further reduced opportunities for British children to engage with music. It is vital that music education survives in schools, if not for the...
Sixteen year old Ivan Deb has won the first Aprahamian Scholarship for young organists which includes a brand new two-manuals-and-pedals home organ, on which he can practise. The Arabesque Trust, which set up the scholarship to help visually impaired young organists,...
Details of Bach and Friends: The Orgelbüchlein Completed series presented by the Royal College of Organists and sponsored by Professor Christopher Wood. This will comprise the following ten events:
Saturday 24 September 2022
Temple Church, 10am – ‘Laws and Canons’
Charles Andrews, organ
Pieces by: David Matthews, Gerald Barry, John Caldwell, Kalevi Aho, Guy Bovet, John Butt, Poul Ruders, John Frandsen, Andrew Synnott, Tarik O’ Regan, Louis Andriessen, Thomas Ospital, Ad Wammes, Ullrich Böhme. By Bach: BWV 600 618 620 624 635 636 643.
St Brides, Fleet Street 11.30am – ‘Symbols and Pictures’
William Whitehead, organ
Pieces by: Grayston Ives, Naji Hakim, Franz Danksagmüller, Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Robert Saxton, Enjott Schneider, Anthony Powers, William Whitehead, Edward Higginbottom, Rhian Samuel, Vincent Paulet, Daniel Beilschmidt. By Bach: BWV 607 621 622.
St Andrew’s Holborn 1.30pm – ‘Trinity’
Tom Bell, organ, with special guests, the Fred Thomas Trio
Pieces by: Solfa Carlile, Robert Quinney, Geoffrey Webber, Sally Beamish, Joris Verdin, Till Alexander Körber, Matthew Martin, David Briggs. By Bach: BWV 629 632 633 639.
St James Garlickhythe 3pm – Launch of Vol 3
Kyoko Canaway, organ
Pieces by: Bryan Kelly, Richard Gowers, Piet Kee, Nils Henrik Asheim, Jörg Abbing, Franz-Josef Stoiber, Joanna Marsh, Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Robert Walker, Christopher Fox, Axel Ruoff, Ernst Wally, Thomas Daniel Schlee, Andrew Carter, Thea Musgrave, Francis Grier, Jon Laukvik, Philip Moore. By Bach: BWV 609 625 637 638.
St Paul’s Cathedral, Evensong 5pm, with organ music starting at 4.30pm.
The music sung at Evensong will include Bach.
‘Grand scheme’ Imogen Morgan, organ
Pieces by: Cecilia McDowall, Roxanna Panufnik, Gabriel Jackson, Sven-David Sandstrøm, Justė Janulytė, Barnaby Martin, Grégoire Rolland, Guy Olivier Ferla, Richard Pantcheff. Voluntary after Evensong: Michael Stephens-Jones, BWV 627.
Sunday 25 September 2022
St George’s, Hanover Square 1pm – ‘The Dance’
Tom Bell, organ
Pieces by: David Maw, Roderick Williams, Paul Ayres, Andrew Keeling, Jeremy Thurlow, Frederick Stocken, David Franke, Silas Wollston, Benoît Mernier, Andrew Gant, Jacques Pichard, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Zsigmond Szathmáry, Andreas Fischer. By Bach: BWV 601 608 612 617 631 644.
Westminster Central Hall 3pm – ‘Luther’
Gerard Brooks, organ
Pieces by: Gerard Brooks, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Daniel Saleeb, Francis Jackson, William Cole, Hayo Boerema, Ruth Byrchmore, Andrew Arthur, Joanna Ward, Stephen Hough, Catherine Kontz, João Vaz. By Bach: BWV 599 604 606 611 616 619 626.
St James Palace, Chapel Royal 5pm – ‘In Homage’
Martyn Noble, organ, with the Choir of the Chapel Royal, conducted by Joe McHardy
Pieces by: Lionel Rogg, Christian von Blohn, Lorenzo Ghielmi, John Scott Whiteley, Alec Roth, James O’ Donnell, James Francis Brown, Peter Shepherd, William Whitehead, Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Pierre Farago, John Rutter, Alexander Campkin, Gregory Rose. By Bach: BWV 602 613 614 630 641.
Westminster Abbey 7pm – Bach: A Celebration
William Whitehead and Peter Holder, organ
Pieces by: Peter Holder, Loïc Mallié, James Lark, Thierry Escaich, Nico Muhly, Daniel Kidane, Simon Johnson, Sebastian Forbes, Nigel Allcoat, David Bednall, Ronny Krippner, Iain Farrington, Peter Planyavsky, David Till, Giles Swayne, Francis Pott. By Bach: BWV 603, 605, 610, 615, 623, 628, 640, 642.
Additionally, the weekend opens at 4pm Friday 23 September with a Bach Masterclass at City of London School, given by John Scott Whiteley and concluding at 6pm with an informal recital by the masterclass players.
For more information on the full weekend, visit www.rco.org.uk/events/bachandfriends
For more on The Orgelbüchlein Project, visit www.orgelbuechlein.co.uk/
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