The College’s bi-annual magazine for members contains features, details of forthcoming events and courses, and general news and views from the RCO.

Samuel Kimuli, an organist, composer and educator now based in the UK, decided to start an Organ Academy in his home country of Uganda to help young musicians who did not have the same opportunities as he had. He tells StopPress how he came to play the organ, and his ambitions for The Organ Academy.

A major investment in school singing by the Hamish Ogston Foundation is allowing Catholic Dioceses around the country to revive singing in schools and foster the next generation of church choristers: we look at how the Diocese of Middlesbrough has become part of this project.

Simon Mercer explains how to approach the rewarding activity of accompanying a choir, on both the piano and the organ. He discusses mental preparation, rehearsal skills and registration, using anthems by Wesley and Bainton as examples.

In this film, Robin Harrison outlines strategies to improve aural skills.  He discusses aspects of pulse, pitch, and phrasing, and suggests transposition and memorisation exercises to train the inner ear.

Pieter Shaw discovered a wonderful Schnitger organ in a local church in Bellingwolde, close to the Dutch/German border, and then was delighted to be offered the post of organist there. He tells StopPress about the instrument and the role of the organist in the Netherlands.

David Baker describes how music at Halifax Parish Church had been in decline until twenty-seven-year-old John Varley Roberts was appointed in late 1868, and transformed the choir at Halifax from a small, mixed group of voices up in the west gallery with an outmoded organ to a choral establishment of some seventy robed male singers in the chancel, accompanied by a four-manual instrument.

Retiring in 2009 to his home county of Yorkshire, David Baker became involved in the local organ scene, but found both organ playing and teaching in a sorry state. Determined to do something about this he founded the Halifax Organ Academy, which has big plans for the future as it celebrates its tenth anniversary.

Nicholas Madden and Paul Trepte perform Who alone is good for tenor solo and organ, a setting by Paul Trepte of the words of St Francis of Assisi, which won the 25 years and over category in the RCO’s Composition Competition in 2020.