This is an archive of news articles from May 2004. Current news articles can be found here and an archive index can be found here. Information in this archive may no longer be valid.

• Malcolm Archer appointed at St Paul's, London
  Malcolm Archer, organist of Wells Cathedral and well-known composer, concert and recording artist, has been appointed to replace John Scott as Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's Cathedral, London. John Scott is leaving St Paul's in September for St Thomas's, Fifth Avenue, New York. For more details, see the Press Release section of St Paul's website.
  
  
• M. L. Bigelow's new Chicago installation complete
  M. L. Bigelow's new Opus 31 for the Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, has recently been completed in their Utah workshop and is ready for shipping. Local readers can view the organ this Saturday (May 21st) between 5pm and 7pm, and other interested parties can view the specification here. The organ has mechanical action and 28 speaking stops over two manuals and pedal, including a full length 16' Praestant.
  
  
• Report from the 2004 Edinburgh Organ Academy
  Michael Harris, Organist and Master of the Music at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh writes:

  The sense of anticipation on the morning of 13th April in Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh was great; the seventh Edinburgh Organ Academy was about to begin. Once again a high profile line-up of tutors had been brought together under the auspices of Napier University's annual course to work with students of all ages from many countries.

  

  One of the unique aspects of the EOA is that it not only caters for the young aspirant professional, but also looks after the "reluctant" organist, and provides activities for a wide variety of organ interests. This year, the 37 participating students had a chance to work in small groups with Lorenzo Ghielmi, from Milan, on music from the Italian Renaissance, and works by Bach, whilst Susan Landale led an exploration of the works of Vierne and Tournemire. Gordon Stewart help those who need to develop their technique, and provided much food for thought, whilst others looked into Messiaen, with Matthew Owens, the English Voluntary, with John Kitchen, or simply explored ways of building their repertoire with the course director, Michael Harris. One of the most popular strands of study was Improvisation, which was directed by Brigitte Harris, whose considerable experience in this field of teaching put many at their ease.

  The four days of the course went by very quickly, and we were also regally entertained in two concerts by Gordon Stewart, in St Giles' Cathedral, and by Lorenzo Ghielmi, with a truly enlightening programme and performance on the Ahrend Organ in the Reid Concert Hall. In Gordon Stewart's recital in St Giles' we also had the first performance of a new work, Concert Waltz, by John Ellis, which was the winning piece in the first Inches Carr Edinburgh Organ Academy Organ Composition Competition.

  Edinburgh is now universally acknowledged as one of the UK's finest 'organ' locations and the Edinburgh Organ Academy is central to the development of organ education in Scotland. This year we had students from UK, Germany, Iceland, Canada and the USA.

  Details of next year's programme will be available from Michael Harris, Edinburgh Organ Academy 2005 at m.harris@napier.ac.uk.

  
  
• News from St John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh
  Remaining in the Scottish capital, St John's Episcopal, situated at the end of the Princes Street gardens at the foot of Castle Hill, is having its three manual pipe organ brought back to something more akin with its Willis roots. Principal Pipe Organs have already removed some of the extended ranks added to the choir and pedal organs in 1974. The resulting choir organ will be restored to the Willis specification (apart from the original duplicated Claribel Flute), but the Rushworth & Dreaper additions (such as the Swell 16' and 4' reeds, and the pedal reed) will mostly be retained. The William Burn church can be seen towards the right of the photograph, nestling in the gardens, and not to be confused with the spires of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral and the tower of Free St George's on the horizon at the far right.
  
  
• News from the Royal Festival Hall
  A number of changes to the Harrison and Harrison organ at the Royal Festival Hall have been recommended by their Organ Consultants' Committee as part of the forthcoming renovations of the whole complex. These proposals recognise the compromises inherent in the original installation and are intrinsically linked with the proposed alterations to the hall in light of failures of the original design to meet its desired acoustical and practical specification.
  
  The organ will remain largely tonally unaltered, but some ranks will be moved around in the chamber to aid projection, and the chamber will be reduced in depth to increase the stage area. As most movement will be within the swell boxes, the appearance will be unaltered, but the reduction in depth combined with a more reflective chamber will result in a more projected sound, which should complement the improved acoustic in the hall itself. There will be some minor tonal finishing to make the organ match its new acoustic.
  
  Perhaps the most obvious difference will be the removal of the dummy pipe motif that has become such an infamous feature of the organ. No longer will organ purists point out that the absurd scale of the wooden pipes would be tonally inappropriate if they could even speak at all! It is a bold step for the curators of such a distinguished organ to propose any significant change, but all the proposals seek to bring both organ and hall nearer to the original intentions of the architects and Ralph Downes. The results of this refurbishment will be almost as eagerly anticipated as the original organ unveiling, and we will report on its success in 2007.