News
Junior Students (February 2010)
Examination Results Since August 2009 (February 2010)
Fees for individual tuition in the main Organ School (February 2010)
Teacher news (February 2010)
Organs available for practice (February 2010)
Junior Students (Februry 2010)
Students under the age of 19 benefit from our Junior Organists’ Scheme, in which students commit to a minimum of 11 hours tuition each academic year and the completion of a folio in return for special lesson fees. Our Junior Conservatoire programme for the more ambitious Junior students includes special classes and visits, and performance in the annual Rachel Chaplin Memorial Concert. All applicants for our Junior Scheme should talk to their Organ School teacher or apply to Ann Elise Smoot (07956 682959; aes@aesmoot.com)
Junior students must submit their folios to their teachers by 15th July 2010. Click on the appropriate level to download a Word template for your folio.
Junior Organists Junior Conservatoire Organists
Fees for individual tuition to Junior Students will rise by £1 to £41 per hour in September 2010.
Bravo to our current Junior students! Jeremy Lloyd and James Perkins were offered full-time places in all the major conservatoires (Royal Academy, Royal College, and Trinity College of Music and Birmingham Conservatoire), including scholarships at the Royal Academy and Royal College. Meanwhile Douglas Knight has won an organ scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford.
Examination Results Since August 2009 (February 2010)
We congratulate our students who have achieved the following successes at organ exams and music festivals:
We congratulate our regular students in their recent successes in Royal College of Organists diplomas: Timothy Hill CertRCO, Lydia Cant ARCO and Andrew Lenon FRCO. We also applaud two successful candidates who took occasional tuition at the Organ School: John Alpass CertRCO and Christopher Johns ARCO.
Our only two entrants to ABRSM grade exams since August both gained distinction:
Devon Tomlinson Grade 4 132
Marie-Astrid Purton Grade 6 131
For those interested in taking grade exams, don’t forget that the ABRSM syllabus changes in January 2011 with the new syllabus available from July 2010. There are many radical features, including new technical requirements and the introduction of a Grade 1 exam.)
Fees for individual tuition in the main Organ School (February 2010)
Fees for individual tuition will increase slightly in September 2010 (two years since our last general increase):
London teachers
Tom Bell and Jonathan Bunney £47; Gerard Brooks, Ann Elise Smoot, Rosemary Field, Daniel Moult, Gerdi Troskie, James Parsons and Simon Williams £53; Anne Marsden Thomas £58.
Teachers outside London
Gerdi Troskie (Worcester), Roger Carter (Harpenden), Tom Bell (Limpsfield, Esher, Pluckley) and James Lloyd Thomas (Sussex and Kent) £40, Henry Fairs (Birmingham) £44, James Parsons in Newcastle £45, James Parsons in Northants/Cambridge £51, and Kevin Bowyer (Glasgow) £58.
- Catherine Ennis and Alison Hogg have retired from the teaching team.
- We no longer operate in Oxford or Manchester.
- Anne now offers the option of booking lessons with her on a Google calendar, enabling students with internet access to consider all her available time before booking. This is particularly useful to those who also want to view the practice organ’s Google calendar (see below) so that they can book a practice and a lesson for the same visit. Please email AMT@organschool.com for details. (Google calendars are free.)
Organs available for practice (February 2010)
St.George’s Southall, Middlesex
St George’s (easily reached via Paddington or Reading by rail, and close to the M25) has a beautiful 1723 instrument by Abraham Jordan - his most complete surviving work, just restored to its original state by Mander Organs. The church is keen to see it used, and it is available to Organ School students in return for a small donation. Junior Conservatoire students can play for free, however. Contact Tom Bell for more details, or to arrange a visit simply email/phone the Vicar on christopher.ramsay@btinternet.com 020 8574 1876
St. Giles Cripplegate
St Giles offers a beautiful small pipe organ, perfectly designed to help students to develop a good technique and musical ears, to those already taking tuition within the Organ School. This 2-manual instrument with straight/concave pedals has a sensitive mechanical action, and is set in a slightly resonant, soundproofed room with direct entry from the churchyard. It is available 7 days a week, including evenings and weekends. Students register, book and pay online. (Those on our Junior Organists schemes enjoy free practice, thanks to a grant from The Rachel Chaplin Memorial Fund, but they still need to register first). Please email AMT@organschool.com for more details.