2012 Suffolk Organists’ Assocation events published – lots of really exciting concerts coming up this year.

Click here for the 2010-2011 Suffolk Organists’ Association Journal - Journal 116

PRESIDENTS OF THE ASSOCIATION

President
Roger Pulham DArch RIBA

Past President
Peter Crompton GRNCM PGCE

Hon. Treasurer
Philip Speirs BSc PGCE

Hon. General Secretary and President Elect 2012-2013
Andrew Garfath-Cox

Journal Editor
James Crowe MBE MA MBA

Education and Publicity Officer
William Saunders BMus (Hons) ARCO

Officers without portfolio
Michael Simmonds
Juliette Adams BMus MFA
Roger Green

Keys, Hands, Feet and Pipes

We are delighted to invite Key Stage 2 children to a free performance at the Ipswich Corn Exchange featuring the organ show Keys, Hands, Feet and Pipes presented by the charismatic and dynamic organist Daniel Moult.

You will experience how the Corn Exchange organ can create anything from the tiniest fluting sound to a mighty rumble which shakes the very seat on which you sit! Dan will show you how he plays not only with his hands, but also with his feet! You will also hear a whistle-stop selection of some of the world’s most famous organ music, providing pupils with the unique opportunity to hear the organs’ music resounding around the Corn Exchange, on what may well be their first visit to a concert hall.

The show will be a multimedia event with lights, smoke, and visual effects, designed specifically to inspire and engage pupils both aurally and visually. The show a will also feature live coverage from inside the organ presented by William Saunders, giving pupils the opportunity to both see and hear how an organ works. We are confident that Dan Moult’s virtuoso performances and infectious enthusiasm will provide a captivating, entertaining and educational experience. The concert will cover various aspects of Key Stage 2 music (simple melodic extension and development, transposition, ostinati, dynamics and tempi etc), science (some basic physics of sound and engineering as seen through a pipe organ) and literacy (advance study of a short story, around which musical excerpts will be based).

The show is sponsored by the Suffolk Organists’ Association and the performances are free to Suffolk School children. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. From past experience of holding similar events in other parts of the country, we are expecting this to be extremely popular occasion. Should you require any further information please contact the event organiser, William Saunders – wrs@ipswich.suffolk.sch.uk.

Play the Keys, Hands, Feet and Pipes game

RCO Raise Your Game! Day, Ipswich, 13th March 2010
STUDENT REPORT
On Saturday 13th March, 18 keen young organists gathered in St Mary le Tower Church in the centre of Ipswich to take part in an RCO Raise Your Game! inspiration day, which was organised with the help of the Suffolk Organists’ Association.  The day began with spoken introductions from James Parsons, Head of Student Development at the RCO Academy, and Dr Michael Nicholas, Director of Music at St Mary le Tower, and a musical introduction from William Saunders, Assistant Director of Music at Ipswich School.  He demonstrated the excitement that the organ could bring by playing Toccata on Von Himmel Hoch by Garth Edmundson.  It was then time to depart to the Royal Hospital School in Holbrook.  Peter Crompton, the Director of Music, demonstrated his amazing four manual instrument, built by Hill, Norman and Beard, which we were then privileged to experience for ourselves.  Some of the students had never played an organ before, and had brought piano music to try out.  Peter Crompton helped them to adapt these pieces to suit the organ, whilst also aiding more advanced organists in the pieces that they had brought with them.  After lunch, we had a WOOFYT (Wooden One-octave Organ For Young Technologists) workshop in the Recital Hall of the new music school at RHS.  Jeremy Sampson led us in various rhythmic exercises, before we all operated the WOOFYT together, showing us how the sound of an organ is produced.  It was now time to head back into Ipswich and to visit the Christie cinema organ at Castle Hill URC.  Richard Hills showed us the differences between the church organ and the cinema organ (including tuned and untuned percussion stops and “double touch” key action).  We all enjoyed experimenting with lighter repertoire, on an instrument that was new to us all.  After tea, again at RHS, most of the students shared a piece that they had worked on during the day with an audience of parents and members of the Suffolk Organists’ Association in the school chapel.  Later in the evening, Nigel Ogden, presenter of BBC Radio 2’s The Organist Entertains, performed a programme of light music, showing the incredible variety of different colours that could be gleaned from a “classical” organ.  This was a fantastic end to a brilliant day, which was much enjoyed by the young organists present.

Nicholas Freestone, Organ Scholar at Ipswich School and St Mary le Tower Civic Church

Work commences on the Cathedral organ on 11th January 2010. The instrument will be out of action for a year while Harrison and Harrison install the new organ. The organ will incorporate pipework from the previous instruments by Norman & Beard and Nicholson. It will speak primarily to the west, but is also designed to accompany services in the quire. Two organ cases will be provided, in accordance with the architect’s intentions: the main case in the transept facing west towards the nave, and a smaller case for the Choir Organ overlooking the quire, where the console is also situated.
The new specification can be seen by clicking here
Information about the appeal can be seen by clicking here

Saturday 13th March 2010
Ipswich. Raise your Game!
 
An RCO Workshop for Young Organists.
For organists of all standards aged 9 – 19 with tuition in small, graded groups from Nigel Ogden (BBC Radio 2′s The Organist Entertains), James Parsons, William Saunders (Ipswich School) and Peter Crompton (Royal Hospital School) using organs at St Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich (3 manual Willis/Bower), Royal Hospital School (4 manual Hill, Norman and Beard) and Castle Hill United Reformed Church (3 manual Christe Cinema organ).
The day concludes with an organ recital by Nigel Ogden at Royal Hospital School Chapel, Holbrook, Ipswich – 7.30pm.