A new website for a new year!

Welcome to 2015 and the new look website. As well as being an information source, the new site is designed to be much more interactive, where ideas can be shared and debated, and where there is space for you to put your own church and your own playing on the site for people to hear.

We are indebted to committee member Martin who has spent considerable time and effort in designing it. He started the project because he wanted to know much more about the organ world, about instruments and the people who enjoy playing them. Many of you will be familiar, by now, with the recent Lady Organist website, which is constantly being refreshed by its designer and founder, Morwenna Brett, who, like Martin, wanted to communicate her strong interest in the organ and its music. Like Morwenna, we are up for sharing news and views.

Were you at the Royal Festival Hall in December 2014, to hear Martin Baker premiere a new work by Simon Holt? He ended the programme with an energetic improvisation based on three themes, the fugue subject from the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, the opening of the Fantasia in F Minor by Mozart and the opening of Widor’s Toccata from Symphonie no. 5. Brilliant! How did he do it? To be able to improvise like that requires skill and study as well as inspiration. Teachers remark that composition is 95% perspiration and 5% inspiration, and improvisation is the same. Learning repertoire to perfection is a good thing, but it can and should be balanced by learning how to make something up, how to explore sounds, how to develop ideas. Come to my husband’s class at St John’s East Dulwich on September 12 2015  at 2.30pm and be inspired!

Marilyn Harper