This week’s Learning During Lockdown is a helping hand towards discovering new repertoire, whether you have access to a practice instrument, or are simply looking for inspiration for the future.  On iRCO we have films from specialists in many specific areas of organ repertoire, explaining the elements of style, fingering and pedalling for the different periods. We also have suggestions for music transcribed for organ, with examples and sources.

Practice techniques, for organists at all levels, are explored in this week’s Learning during Lockdown, including exercises at the piano for those unable to access an organ. We also look at the nature of virtuoso playing, from practical exercises to inspirational recordings and films.

This week’s Learning during Lockdown focusses on improvisation, a skill all organists are encouraged to acquire, and which is expected, at some level, in most organ examinations.   Here on iRCO you can find films demonstrating improvisation skills for organists at every stage, from total beginner to FRCO. 

Maintaining a livelihood during the Covid-19 pandemic is a serious matter, particularly for freelance musicians, and many are looking at the possibilities of going online, either to maintain an existing teaching portfolio, or to start teaching for the first time.  iRCO has resources for all organ teachers, and advice from a teacher experienced in teaching the organ online.

A picture gallery of the RCO Conferment ceremony from Southwark Cathedral, in March 2020.

The increasing severity of the Covid-19 lockdown means that organists are not just faced with a sudden loss of work, but also restricted or no access to their instrument.  To fill this enforced downtime, the RCO is making their online virtual campus iRCO available to all organists, so that learning, at least, can continue. Here on StopPress we are collating this material into themed packages to help improve different aspects of your playing.

As Covid-19 shuts down concert halls, schools and churches, RCO colleagues suggest ways in which the spare time created in musicians’ lives can be used constructively, with suggestions for practice timetables, repertoire, and building new skills for the future.

Watch the College’s 2020 Conferment of Diplomas ceremony here, in full, or as edited highlights, and download the Programme, and the full texts of the speeches and citations.

Listen to the Ede & Ravenscroft Recital which closed the College’s 2020 Conferment of Diplomas ceremony, performed by Anne Page, which included works by Bach, Daniel Roth, Judith Weir and Olivier Messiaen.