Details of Organ School Classes
from January to June 2015
You are now encouraged to book classes online at www.rco.org.uk. Select ‘Take a class’ from the ‘What would you like to do today’ list top right, and follow the instructions. Booking online is quick and reliable but, if you prefer the old system, you can use the enclosed booking form or telephone 05603 488231.
Bursaries are available: https://www.rco.org.uk/education_scholarships.php
Please note times (the 24-hour clock is used)
All prices quoted are inclusive of VAT @ 20%.
Saturday 24 January 2015
Practise Perfectly
Lincoln College, Oxford OX1 3DR
1400–1700
Everyone knows that practice is the key to improvement, but fewer people know how to practise well. Gabriele Damiani provides strategies for getting the best results from your practice by showing you how to be more focused and inspired. Bring any repertoire you like! (ABRSM Grades 1–5) Fee £57.00
Tuesday 27 January 2015
Towards ARCO
St Giles, Cripplegate, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DA
1730–2030
Daniel Moult gives in-depth guidance to students in any repertoire from the ‘non-Bach’ lists on the ARCO syllabus: lists B, C and D. This class welcomes everyone, whether or not you are preparing for a diploma. (ABRSM Grade 7 upwards) Fee £67.00
Saturday 31 January 2015
Spotlight on Vierne’s 24 Pièces en style libre, op. 31
All Saints, Margaret Street, London W1W 8JG
1400–1700
Vierne’s 24 Pièces contain some of the most beautiful – and liturgically useful – music in the repertoire. Choose any piece from the collection, maybe guided by our graded list. This is the first RCO Organ School class to be offered on this vintage 4-manual Harrison & Harrison organ, which is taught by the resident organist, Timothy Byram-Wigfield. (ABRSM Grade 6–diploma) Fee £67.00
Saturday 7 February 2015
How to learn Bach
St Giles, Cripplegate, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DA
1100–1400
Most student organists long to play Bach but find that it is harder to learn than they expect. Anne Marsden Thomas helps your brain, fingers and feet to absorb this great music in a comfortable, accurate and stylistically informed way. Choose a piece from our graded list and bring it unexplored to the class. Topics will include articulation, fingering, footing, registration, ornamentation and strategies for practice. (ABRSM Grades 6–8) Fee £67.00
Saturday 14 February 2015
Share Your Repertoire
Old St Martin, Worcester WR1 2PL
1400–1700
The organ repertoire seems infinite, and building a repertoire is itself an art. Bring your favourite pieces to this class, including perhaps something a little off the beaten track if you can, to perform and share with other class students. Gerdi Troskie will hone and support your performance. Not only will you gain in performing experience, but fruitful discussions and cross fertilisation of ideas for expanding your repertoire are bound to occur. (All standards) Fee: £47.00
Saturday 21 February 2015
Advanced Performance Class
St John, Notting Hill, London W11 2NN
1400–1700
It is hard indeed to find occasions to try out performances before an important recital or exam. This class offers the more advanced player the chance to get the adrenaline flowing a little, but still in a supportive environment, to help iron out the wrinkles in your performance of current repertoire. Expect invaluable advice and tips from the teacher of this class, Andrew Cantrill, and no doubt from fellow participants. (ABRSM Grade 6–diploma) Fee: £67
Saturday 28 February 2015
Three French toccatas
St George’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Southwark, London SE1 7HY
1400–1700
The toccatas by Gigout, Dubois and Boellmann are popular with both organists and audiences for good reason. Because they present similar technical challenges this class deals with them together. Bring one or more of these works. Gerard Brooks teaches this class on a large Compton organ, the first time this instrument has been used for an RCO class. (ABRSM Grade 6–diploma) Fee: £67
Saturday 21 March 2015
Technique Clinic
Christ’s Chapel of God’s Gift, Dulwich, London SE21 7AS
1430–1730
Getting an outside view of our organ technique can be helpful at any stage. Bring some favourite pieces to this class and let Marilyn Harper identify not only your strengths but also where you could consider improving your technique – and how. Areas for discussion will include general posture, hand position and footing. Expect hard work but also inspiration. (All standards) Fee: £67
Saturday 28 March 2015
Confident sight-reading
St Michael, Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire HX7 5DS
1330–1630
Church organists have to read huge numbers of notes in the course of their work, and confident sight-reading is therefore important for any player. This class, in collaboration with the Halifax Organ Academy, is taught by Anne Marsden Thomas, and provides guidance to help students develop their skills, dispelling the myth that sight-reading is either something you can, or cannot, do. (All standards) Fee: £47
Saturday 18 April 2015
Supersize me
St George’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Southwark SE1 7HY
1400–1700
Many students of whatever age learn on only perhaps a couple of organs, often smaller ones. This class gives such students the chance to confront the technical challenges and enjoy the thrills of exploring their repertoire on a big cathedral organ under the guidance of Tom Bell. (ABRSM Grades 2–5) Fee: £67
Saturday 25 April 2015
Contemporaries of Bach
St Michael & All Angels, Bedford Park, London W4 1TT
1400–1700
The Baroque period is the core of the organ repertoire. Bring any music of any nationality written between about 1600 to 1750 – but not by J.S. Bach himself – and get detailed coaching from Roger Carter. From Couperin to Buxtehude – the range of superb repertoire for this class is huge. This is a beautiful new organ, ideal for this musical period, and the first RCO class to be held here. (ABRSM Grades 5–8) Fee: £67
Saturday 2 May 2015
The English 18th-century voluntary
St Giles-in-the-Fields, London WC2H 8LG
1400–1700
Jonathan Bunney leads students in the attractive repertoire of the English baroque voluntary on an organ that is ideal for this repertoire. The focus will be on understanding fundamentals of historically-informed performance, including articulation, ornamentation and registration. Suggestions for repertoire will be given upon application. (ABRSM Grades 3–6) Fee: £67
Tuesday 5 May to Thursday 7 May 2015
Classes in Germany
Leipzig and Naumburg
The Organ School’s study trip, led by Frederick Stocken, visits Bach’s own church, St Thomas’s, Leipzig and St Wenzel, Naumburg, where the 1746 Hildebrandt organ was personally approved (and possibly part-designed) by Bach himself. Wednesday afternoon’s class in Naumburg, given by St Wenzel’s organist David Franke, is preceded by an optional recital and organ tour; we then return by train to Leipzig for a class on Thursday morning with Ullrich Böhme at St Thomas’s. The itinerary also allows time to visit St Nicholaikirche in Leipzig (the other church in Leipzig where Bach worked), and the extensive and scholarly Bach Museum in Leipzig. Our preparation sheet suggests travel and accommodation options which you book independently. Bursaries may be available; please outline your circumstances. This trip is suitable only for those over 18 years old. (ABRSM Grade 7 and above) Fee £150.
Saturday 16 May 2015
Keyboard musicianship
St Mary and St Joseph’s, Poplar, London
1400–-1700
This class concentrates on five related subjects of keyboard musicianship – figured bass, score-reading, transposition, harmonisation and improvisation. Frederick Stocken, the teacher of this class, has developed carefully graded material in collaboration with Anne Marsden Thomas to provide a new pathway to gain gradual confidence in these skills. (ABRSM Grades 4–8) Fee: £67
Saturday 23 May 2015
Introduction to advanced interpretation
St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham B4 6EU
1300–1600
Developing an individual musical personality is highly desirable in the more advanced player, and essential for anyone hoping to enter the musical profession. James Parsons motivates students to expand a sense of interpretative independence in a thought-provoking class, based on any repertoire you care to play, pre-Bach to contemporary. The 3-manual 42-stop, mechanical action Walker organ at St Chad’s is inspirational and speaks into a resonant space. (ABRSM Grade 6–diploma) Fee: £67
Saturday 30 May 2015
Securer feet
St Giles, Cripplegate, London EC2Y 8DA
1100–1400
With a pedal-board for each student, this class helps students develop securer footing using methods developed over many years, and now supported by an array of material in a newly-published tutor on pedalling by the leader of this class, Anne Marsden Thomas. (All standards)
Fee: £67
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