Organists' Review

20/05/2024

📣 Check out the June edition of Organists' Review magazine for an interview with Ad Fontes Executive Producer, Matthew Searles, about our journey so far and what we have in the pipeline!

13/04/2024

We are very sorry to announce the death of our Editor, Professor Francis O’Gorman. As well as being a world-renowned authority on English literature, Francis was a highly respected music writer and critic. In addition, he was a fine and knowledgable organist. We are grateful for all he did for Organists’ Review, and particularly for his series of insightful interviews with so many figures from the organ world.

22/02/2024

IAO-RCO Organ Playing Competition for Young Organists

The competition final will be held in York Minster on Sunday July 28 and the adjudicators are Robert Sharpe, Katelyn Emerson and Sarah MacDonald. The closing date is Thursday February 29.

See here for more details: https://www.rco.org.uk/news_displaystory.php?newsid=379

30/01/2024

Coming soon … and with many thanks to Nigel Kerry for the cover image of the Abbott and Smith organ at Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Cambridge, opened by C.V. Stanford, whose centenary we mark with an essay by Paul Spicer.

04/01/2024

NEWS! HYMN TUNE COMPETITION

OR and the Incorporated Association of Organists invite submissions of a newly composed hymn tune. The deadline is 1 May 2024 and submissions should be sent to [email protected].
The purpose of the competition is to revive some good but under-used words that need a good new tune to increase their popularity. What is ‘good’ is up to the composer to determine.
The winner will receive £200 and publication of their piece in Organists’ Review and its associated social media (though they will, of course, be free to make publication arrangements of their own after this). Submission will be taken as giving OR permission to use the winning composer’s work in this way.
The tune should:

a) set pre-existing metrical words in English from Christian hymnody;
b) be a hymn tune not a worship song;
c) be suitable for congregational singing. It can be in unison or harmony;
d) not have a narrow liturgical appeal (e.g., be for a particular saint’s day) but be more general (that does not rule out it being focused, e.g., a communion hymn, a processional, etc).

There are no other restrictions. The judges reserve the right to request minor alterations to the winning entry.
Entries should be submitted anonymously with a tune name (e.g., ‘Rackingham’) to the Editor who is not involved in the judging. The Editor should also receive separate confirmation of the identity of the person behind the tune name. Composers will only be disclosed to the judges after a winner is decided.
The judges’ decision will be by 1 July and final; the winner will be announced at the IAO Festival in York, July 2024; the winning entry will be published in OR in September 2024.
The judges are:

The Revd Canon Peter Moger, Sub Dean, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford;
Dr June Nixon, Organist Emerita of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia;
David Pipe, Deputy Editor, Organists’ Review and Cathedral Organist, Diocese of Leeds;
Robert Sharpe, President of the IAO and Director of Music, York Minster.

We do hope you will consider entering.

15/11/2023

The new issue is out.

29/10/2023

Almost finished the final proofs for December ... (the organ on the cover is the Aeolian-Skinner (1940) instrument in the Sage Chapel, Cornell University. OR talks to Professor Annette Richards, the University Organist, in this issue).

23/10/2023

We’re doing the first proofs for the December issue of _Organists’ Review_ so I thought I’d post a few things about what’s in it over the next few weeks. Two articles from Features to start: the concert virtuoso Eleni Keventsidou discusses the legacy of Fernando Germani and Martin Holmes reveals the organ music treasures of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
There is a lot in this issue …

12/10/2023

The team at Creative Oundle are excited to annouce details of the 2024 courses and opportunities with Oundle for Organists. Every year, COfO courses make a lasting impact on the…

30/09/2023

Happy 80th birthday to Dr Philip Moore! He discusses his relationship with the organ from childhood onwards in the next (December 2023) issue of _Organists' Review_.

28/08/2023

In the September issue there are two pieces from some of our new occasional series. First, there is Jack Wilson, newly appointed Master of Music at Belfast Cathedral, introduing himself wittily and engagingly. And second, celebrated organist Richard Pinel reflects on his time as Director of Music at Jesus College Cambridge.

22/08/2023

In the September issue the Welsh composer and organist Huw Morgan discusses his fascinating ‘mainly slow organ music’ collaborative project—with an excellent tortoise icon!—and Thomas Allery from the Temple Church offers an introduction to playing from figured bass for complete beginners.

21/08/2023

Congratulations!

18/08/2023

We've had some very interesting correspondence about organs in Methodist locations, followng on from Dr Martin Clarke's stimulating piece in the just-published September issue.
Also, there is a trio of revealing essays on the Queen's funeral and the coronation--from Peter Holder, Miriam Reveley, and Dr Christopher Robinson. They explore musical aspects of these great state occasions.

15/08/2023

The September issue is happily out now in hard copy and digital form. (As some people have noticed a change was made without our knowledge to the front cover after the issue had been proofed and signed off: it isn't the March 2022 edition! The header is correct on the digital issue, reproduced below. We're sorry about this mistake.)

Now to the contents ... this quarter, to begin, we have our turn at thinking about William Byrd in his 400th anniversary year. John Lees writes authoritatively about Byrd's choral music, giving an overview of his achievement and the risky world in which he lived and made music.

Also, Thomas Ospital, one of the two titulaires at St-Eustache, Paris, talks to OR about his work in the church with the largest pipe organ in France.

More to come ...

14/08/2023

What very very sad news.

Dear Friends,

We are deeply saddened to inform you of the passing of beloved Canadian composer, organist and educator, Rachel Laurin on August 13, 2023.

Rachel’s passing is deeply felt by her many devoted friends and colleagues across the country and is a great loss to the Canadian musical community.

Rachel’s obituary and details about how she will be remembered will be shared as they become available.

27/07/2023

Getting ready for publication!

19/07/2023

The September issue will feature specially commissioned articles on HM the Queen's funeral and the coronation.
*Miriam Reveley writes on her perspective as then-Organ Scholar of St George's Windor;
*Peter Holder, Sub Organist of Westminster Abbey, writes a 'behind-the-scenes' article on the funeral at the Abbey and then the coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla;
*Finally, the Editor interviews Dr Christopher Robinson about his contribution of five royal fanfares.

15/07/2023

We’re finalising the September issue with many exciting articles. We’ll tell you more shortly but a taster: Christopher Robinson on the Coronation Fanfares; Thomas Ospital on music at St-Eustache; John Lees on the Byrd 400th anniversary …

16/11/2022

The December issue is out now.

We continue our exploration of César Franck for the bicentenary of his birth with an article by the acclaimed virtuoso Marie-Louise Langlais. Mme Langlais explores just what we do and more importantly don’t know about interpreting this composer. Alongside this, Sarah MacDonald, of Selwyn College Cambridge and Ely Cathedral, writes about her ‘lockdown’ project of learning, and then recording, one of the great treasures of the keyboard repertoire: Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. Also in this issue, the editor speaks to a major figure of twentieth-century organ performance, Lionel Rogg, in his home in Switzerland.

12/09/2022

In a new series introducing up-and-coming organists, Imogen Morgan, ADoM at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh, writes about her career to date in the September issue.

07/09/2022

Marking HM the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Paul Hale writes on two remarkable royal organs—at Buckingham Palace and Windsor.

02/09/2022

The well-known French musicologist François Sabatier introduces the organ works of André Fleury, between the Romantics and the Moderns, in ‘off the beaten path’ in the September issue.

30/08/2022

Celebrated British organist Claire Hobbs writes a review essay on the complete Deutsche Grammophon recordings of in the September issue.

25/08/2022

Marking his 80th birthday, the renowned titulaire of St-Sulpice, Daniel Roth, is in conversation with Francis O’Gorman in the September issue.