A series of webinars, presented by Frederick Stocken, covering the Bach chorale question from the CRCO Diploma examination written paper.

A picture gallery of the RCO Conferment ceremony from Southwark Cathedral, in March 2020.

Watch the College’s 2020 Conferment of Diplomas ceremony here, in full, or as edited highlights, and download the Programme, and the full texts of the speeches and citations.

The RCO’s Certificate of Accredited Membership (CAM) scheme allows both fledging and long-standing organists to benchmark their skills, wherever in the world they live. Gillian Collins, living in Australia, recently gained accreditation at CAM Intermediate level. She explains what led her to try for the qualification.

Watch the College’s 2019 Conferment of Diplomas ceremony in full or as edited highlights. The ceremony at Southwark Cathedral on Saturday 9th March saw the College present Diplomas and Certificates to 53 Members of the College, and award the Medal of the Royal College of Organists to two distinguished practitioners in the field of organ music.

Jonathan Davies regards achieving the ARCO qualification as his greatest personal achievement, though it was a long road from just wanting to play flashy pieces on the organ to acquiring the musicianship needed to qualify. He describes some of the techniques which led to final success, for the benefit of anyone else contemplating this examination.

Composer and organist Matthew Martin presents a film on the requirements of improvisation for the FRCO examination, with a discussion of how to approach the four possible options: cantus firmus, romantic prelude, variations and récit en taille.

Sara Rothwell studied the organ from the age of 16, but only recently decided to take an RCO Diploma examination – winning both the Freemasons’ Prize and a John Birch scholarship in the process. She describes the challenges of taking the exam, and how she prepared for it.

In this film Matthew Martin discusses how to approach the improvisation tests in the ARCO examination syllabus. He suggests devices, patterns and techniques for the different tests, and demonstrates them on the Kenneth Tickell organ of Keble College, Oxford.