Sir Andrew Parmley, Chief Executive of the RCO, describes how Richard Limpus’ vision in 1860 of a college to raise the professional standing of the organist has been fulfilled today, in ways that he never could have imagined. 

The College has just announced a new reciprocal agreement with colleagues in the American Guild of Organists, which allows members of either organisation to join the other as affiliate members, and benefit from a range of perks.  We look at the AGO and what it can offer RCO Members, and at other American resources that might be of interest.

RCO Director Andrew Macintosh explores the resources that are available online for organists and choral directors, on the RCO’s virtual campus, iRCO.

The June 2020 edition of RCO News, the College’s bi-annual magazine, can be downloaded by RCO Members here in pdf format.

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

The increasing severity of the Covid-19 lockdown means that organists are not just faced with a sudden loss of work, but also restricted or no access to their instrument.  To fill this enforced downtime, the RCO is making their online virtual campus iRCO available to all organists, so that learning, at least, can continue. Here on StopPress we are collating this material into themed packages to help improve different aspects of your playing.

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.

Listen to the Ede & Ravenscroft Recital which closed the College’s 2020 Conferment of Diplomas ceremony, performed by Anne Page, which included works by Bach, Daniel Roth, Judith Weir and Olivier Messiaen.

OrganFest 2019 will be hosted by Cardiff and Llandaff, and runs from from 6th to the 8th September, based around five landmark churches and their instruments. These include St David’s Hall, Llandaff Cathedral, and two fine examples of Henry Willis organs. David Briggs and Gerard Brooks are among the recitalists, and David Pipe performs a family concert of music with Jeremy Sampson’s Wooden One-Octave Organ for Young Technologists in attendance.