The RCO’s toes are still tapping after spending a day with the Troxy Wurlitzer in January, in the company of our colleagues of the Cinema Organ Society. Young Theatre Organist of the Year 2016, Lewis Scott, was also there, and he talks about winning the competition, how he manages to practise, and his plans for the future.

The San Francisco-based musician, Michael Hendron, travels the world, seeking out harmoniums and reed organs in dusty corners of French cathedrals and village churches, recording interesting repertoire. He has made videos at Sainte-Clotilde and La Madeleine in Paris, on harmoniums dating from the time of Franck, Fauré and Saint-Saëns. Michael joined David Aprahamian Liddle last November at St Barnabas, Pimlico, where David is the proud owner of a 2-manual harmonium built in 1868 by Philip J Trayser of Stuttgart.

Applications are invited from senior organ students, or organists in the early stages of their professional careers, for the W T Best Memorial Scholarship, worth £,4000 for up to 3 years. Auditions are scheduled for 23rd February 2017, with a closing date for applications of 5pm on 20th January 2017.

In 1927, Elizabeth Campbell travelled to England from her home in Melbourne, Australia, to study organ and conducting at the Royal College of Music in London with Henry Ley. She became one of Australia’s leading organists, but always dreamed of going back to London. In 1933 her dream came true and she was invited back by the RCM as part of their Jubilee Celebrations. She kept a diary of this remarkable year’s visit, which survived, and has been transcribed and published by Robert Cox, a close friend of her family.

The RCO throws off its cassock and surplice, and slips into something a little more glamorous, for the 2017 RCO Organ Forum: a toe-tapping day of light organ music with the Cinema Organ Society on Saturday 7 January – the first time the respective worlds of the classical and theatre organ have come together for study and discussion.

Two young RCO members are carving out careers for themselves as composers, alongside their organ playing. Both Matthew Kelley and Tammas Slater won in the junior category the BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers competition in 2015, and for both of them this has been a life-changer, leading to a series of further commissions.

There’s just a week left for teenage organists to enter the competition which takes place on Thursday 29 December, organised by the Organ Club, for cash prizes and opportunities for recitals. Prizewinners also gain free entry into the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition – which is co-organiser of this event. The deadline for entry is Thursday 10 November – so no time to lose!

What pipe organ would you expect to see on the wall of an organ scholar’s bedroom? The 1735 Christian Muller instrument of the St Bavokerk, Haarlem, of course, in all its beauty and grandeur. The RCO took twelve lucky organists on a Masterclass to play it, under the tutelage of Reitze Smits.

Joe McHardy was convinced he’d failed his FRCO earlier this year, so when he got emails telling him not only that he had passed, but been awarded the Durrant Prize, and then the John Birch Scholarship, he thought there must have been some mistake. He tells us what the Scholarship, and the RCO, have meant for him.