With the formal winding up of the Percy Whitlock Trust in 2017 due to the lapsing of copyright, Robert Gower gives a summary of the aims and achievements of the Trust during its existence, and discusses Whitlock’s musical legacy.

For the Centenary Celebrations of the College one event in particular stands out, a concert organised by Peter Hurford at the Royal Albert Hall on 24 September 1966 entitled ‘Organ, In Sanity and Madness’.  At the viewing distance of a half-century, it is timely to note its context, its impact, and subsequent repercussions.

Christopher Kent examines the life and times of William Sterndale Bennett: his contribution as organist, composer and conductor to nineteenth century musical life, and his contribution to the growing nineteenth-century appreciation of J S Bach.

Sidney Campbell was appointed Organist of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in 1961, and went to considerable lengths to ensure the Harrison & Harrison organ there met his exacting criteria.  Relf Clark studied with Campbell at St George’s, and gives an outline of Campbell’s career and achievements.

Keyboard players of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were expected to be proficient accompanists on all types of keyboard instrument, from organ to harpsichord and, later, fortepiano. Thomas Allery looks at original source material to gain insight into the performance practices of early music.

Given Johann Jacob Froberger’s significance in the written history of music, it is surprising how little of his music is regularly played or known today. The 400th anniversary of Froberger’s birth presented an ideal opportunity for Terence Charlston to reassess current trends and to enhance the diversity and presence of Froberger’s music within our performance culture.

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.