There’s a powerful astrological theme to Martin Baker’s organ recital at St Michael’s Cornhill on Monday 13 March, as he gives the world premiere of Jonathan Hagger’s Great Conjunction Triptych: Seven Vignettes for Organ.

Applications are invited from organists aged 18-26 for the Musicians’ Company Award for Organists (formerly the W T Best Scholarship).

Stéphane Mottoul, Organist at the Hofkirche, Lucerne, explains how to improvise a partita in Baroque style based on a hymn tune. He begins by discussing the harmonisation of the hymn melody, and then explains how to construct three variations using the hymn tune as a basis: a ricercar, a trio chorale, and a chorale with figurations. 

Find resources here for Woman Composer Sunday, which takes place on March 5 this year. It’s an international platform for music written for organ by women composers, and a new recommended repertoire list created by the Society of Women Organists along with the American Guild of Organists is now available to download.

The RCO was delighted to present Professor Suzuki Masaaki with the RCO Medal at a masterclass for Royal Academy of Music organ students in London this January.

Copies of the College’s magazine for members from April 2007 to January 2020 can be downloaded here as pdfs.

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

In the summer of 2022, James Lloyd Thomas set off for Nigeria.  He was following in the footsteps of other RCO tutors over the years, to spend a week with the organists and choristers in the Lagos cathedrals and churches, coaching them in the English cathedral traditions of organ-playing and singing.

Services, ceremonies and other performances are increasingly being made available to see and hear via the internet. Whether the performance is being broadcast live for a single live viewing, or subsequently made available for ‘catch-up’ viewing, our partners at the Musicians’ Union publish recommended minimum rates.