Peter Woodward came to organ playing late in life. It was unexpected, but the involvement with the instrument and its music has been transforming. Here’s the story in his own words – how on the death of his wife Mary he took up the piano and then the organ, and followed her in attending the RCO’s big Summer Course for the last three years.

Andrew Forbes discusses the nature of virtuosity, and how to overcome the frustrations of mastering a piece which is on the edge of your own current capabilities.

Leicester MusicFest 2018 welcomes amateur organists of all ages and abilities to showcase their talents in two competition classes in their annual pipe organ competition which takes place on the afternoon of Saturday 10th February 2018, on the Peter Collins organ in the St Cecilia Auditorium at English Martyrs Catholic School in Leicester.

Max Reger’s great first compositional period ended with his Second Sonata for Organ, Opus 60, written in 1901 at the time of his move from Weiden to Munich. It is a good introduction to his work, because it is concise, but has a lot of variation of form and technique.

On his move to Munich in 1901, Max Reger’s music, even by his standards, became more involved and difficult, and the signature work from this time is his set of variations on a theme by Bach, one of six great sets of variations he wrote. This work was written for piano, but conductor Ira Levin, using Reger’s own orchestration of his Beethoven Variations as an inspiration, has orchestrated the work.

This documentary film attempts to prise open Reger’s music, to equate it with his biography and the context of his life, and to combine discussion of his music with footage of performers playing excerpts from major works in many forms – lieder, orchestral and instrumental works, and the organ music from his great Weiden period of 1898 to 1901.

Westminster Cathedral’s Grand Organ Festival 2017 ended on Wednesday 29 November with a recital by the Cathedral’s Master of Music, Martin Baker. In his role as RCO President, Martin arranged for this also to be an occasion for members of the College’s Anniversary Circle and other supporters to enjoy a pre-concert talk and post-concert reception in the atmospheric surroundings of the Clergy House Library.

Those of us who attended the RCO/Cinema Organ Society Organ Day at the Troxy Cinema in London’s East End last January are aware of the skills of organists like Richard Hills FRCO – equally at home on the classical as well as the cinema organ. Now, a year on, another celebrated classical organist will step up to the Troxy Wurlitzer – Thomas Trotter gives his first concert on the cinema organ this coming January, in the company of Simon Gledhill. We look at the legacy of other crossover artists in the organ world.

Richard Brasier discusses the performance of the organ music of the Classical period: repertoire between the Baroque and Romantic that is often neglected.