A new anthology of celebratory music for organ includes pieces by a distinguished past President of the RCO, and a recent FRCO prize-winner just beginning her organist career.

Award-winning composer and organist James Mitchell has written a welcome guide to composing for the organ. Published by OUP, the book is supported with online resources, and RCO members are entitled to a 30% discount off the list price.

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.

James Mitchell plays his Festival Toccata, the winning entry in the under-25 years category in the RCO’s Composition Competition, held in 2020.

On Sunday 7 March, the eve of International Women’s Day, organists (and a few choirs too) took to social media to celebrate Woman Composer Sunday, a joint initiative by the Society of Women Organists and the RCO.  Organists were asked to perform a piece of music by a woman composer that day, and post it to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. StopPress reports on the inspiring results.

We are recording our current series of live webinars on harmony for the RCO examination written papers, so they can be viewed on iRCO.  This month’s Learning during Lockdown suggests how you could use these, and other resources, to start or continue your studies of harmony, depending on your existing knowledge.   We also introduce live looping, an improvisatory technique from the world of electronic music, which can be creatively applied to the organ.

A practical guide to writing fugues for students, of particular interest to candidates for the RCO Diploma examinations, but useful to anyone with some skills in basic harmony who wishes to expand their knowledge.

The Bristol and District Organists’ Association thinks they may have qualified for the Guinness Book of Records this month, with a unique public concert of 16 previously unheard organ compositions. The occasion was the finals of their competition for new compositions for the organ, to find a piece that was approachable, could be used as service voluntary, and also within recital repertoire.

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.