Looking outwards 09 December

Education for organists

fullThis month I have invited Simon Williams to write an article about the Royal College of Organists activities as an educational resource. Simon is Director of RCO Academy, the education department of the Royal College of Organists, of which institution he is a Fellow. He studied at Durham University , where he was organ scholar of St Chad ‘s College and conductor of the University Chamber Choir, and at the Royal College of Music. He is Organist and Director of Music at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, directing the church’s professional choir and where he played a major part in the project for a new organ, completed in 2012, by the American builders Richards, Fowkes & Company. Together with Richard Hobson, his colleague at the Grosvenor Chapel, he directs Mayfair Organ Concerts which presents recitals on Tuesday lunchtimes throughout the year and occasionally at other times. Recent concerts have included a rare performance of Stanford’s Concert Piece for Organ and Orchestra op. 181 at St John’s Smith Square with the New London Orchestra and Ronald Corp, recitals for the London Handel Festival and the Elgar Society, both at St George’s Hanover Square, and recitals at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and at Portsmouth and Wells Cathedrals. Simon is also Music Director of Harrow Choral Society and a teacher for RCO Academy Organ School .

David Wakefield

RCO Academy: your ‘one-stop-shop’.    Simon Williams, Director RCO Academy

Once something has been available for a while it can seem as if it has always been there. Take the internet for instance, which is little more than 25 years old. Could we manage without it and its associated facilities of email and social media? The question is hardly worth answering.

Although as yet of less global significance, the same growth has been true of organ education!  Many of us, especially those living in or within easy reach of big cities like London now take it for granted that there will be organ courses, study days, masterclasses and the like available on a regular basis. The more adventurous also take advantage of the growth in summer schools across mainland Europe and further afield. Yet National Learn the Organ Year (NLOY), which kick-started organ education in 1990, and its follow-up in National Organ Teachers Encouragement Scheme date from the same time as the birth of the world-wide web, a time when it seemed to be cutting edge educational work to promote a series of themed masterclasses for all standards as NOTES did, and to provide a laboriously typed and photocopied nationwide list of organ teachers as NLOY did.

All this was a start but was not enough for NLOY founder Anne Marsden Thomas 2014and organiser Anne Marsden Thomas who saw just how difficult it was for most organists to access high quality organ teaching, in which the teacher and student agreed goals, reviewed them regularly and devised a structured programme to help meet those goals. Anne quickly developed a reputation as an inspiring and meticulous teacher such that she could not cope with the demand for lessons with her and so St Giles International Organ School was born (SGIOS).  With a small team of carefully selected teachers in place, working to a mutually agreed idea of what organ teaching could and should be, demand continued to increase and the team continued to expand, with teachers joining who were offering lessons not only in London and the South East, but in other parts of the UK. Indeed Kevin Bowyer, then a teacher with the School, seemed to be willing to break his regular car journey between London and Manchester just about anywhere to offer an hour’s tuition to a grateful student! A programme of class tuition developed too, designed to complement individual lessons, but also open to those not learning with an SGIOS teacher. Alongside this ran the annual Summer Course, directed by Anne and promoted first by the RSCM and then, since 2009, by the RCO. This course, the RCO Academy Summer Course, now regularly attracts between 70 and 80 students of all ages, levels of attainment and aspirations from across the UK and beyond.

St Laurence Upminster Sept 06 004SimonBut I have jumped the gun in mentioning RCO Academy since 20 years ago the RCO did not offer a regular programme of educational activity. The appointment of an education officer in 1995, another outcome of NOTES, made such a programme possible. I was that education officer working two days a week on my own. Now I work three days a week and have distinguished colleagues forming the RCO Academy in James Parsons as Head of Student Development, Anne Marsden Thomas as Head of RCO Academy Organ School, and with Frederick Stocken as classes officer.

In broad terms RCO Academy

  • recruits and nurtures the next generation of young musicians
  • supports those seeking accreditation in organ playing, organ teaching and choral directing
  • provides lifelong learning and continuing professional development for organists of all ages, levels of attainment and aspirations
  • creates opportunities to share common interests and explore the full glory of the organ and its associated repertoires

This translates into specific activity each year as follows:

  • 20 accredited teachers working across the UK offering individual tuition to over 200 students
  • a programme of around 30 hands-on classes on a multiplicity of topics
  • four residential courses for youngsters and adults
  • four to six young organists days
  • an Organ Forum exploring a topic in depth
  • study days in support of those engaged in the RCO’s accreditation programme
  • engagement work to interest people in (re-)starting to learn the organ

But this is what is currently happening, further details of which can be found at www.rco.org.uk. A major expansion in everything the College does is planned for 2016 so keep returning to the website, ‘like’ our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter to keep abreast of this.

 Simon Williams

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