The Organ Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, Harrison & Harrison Head Voicer and Managing Director, Andy Scott, takes Mark O'Brien on a tour round the workshop in Durham to highlight the importance of apprenticeships in sustaining the skill and craft of organ building. Andy also talks about his experience at Harrison's, having started as an apprentice himself, aged 16, before becoming London Tuner, Head Voicer and Managing Director.

Harrison & Harrison

International concert organist, Katelyn Emerson, talks about her rise to success on the concert platform and how she often looks to the cultural and geographical backgrounds of pipe organs to inform her interpretation. Currently dividing her time between performing and taking a PhD at Cambridge University, she explains how her analytical approach to music and performance informs her playing and teaching.

Katelyn Emerson


Email the Organ Podcast: theorganpodcast@rco.uk.org

https://www.rco.org.uk/

Richard Hills, Director of Music at the West London Synagogue, demonstrates the synagogue's four manual Harrison and Harrison organ, and explains its role in accompanying the liturgy for the Shabbat services. He talks about how this organ has played an important role in assimilating and creating a British musical and choral sound-world that is distinctive to the West London Synagogue.

https://www.rco.org.uk/

In this episode we get a first look at the new Harrison & Harrison organ at the Guards' Chapel in London. Harrison's Head Voicer, Andy Scott, talks about the Harrison & Harrison sound while he demonstrates voicing the organ.

https://www.harrisonorgans.com/

https://www.harrisonorgans.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/London-Guards-Chapel-2023.pdf

Andrew Macintosh, Director of RCO Scotland and Northern Ireland, talks about his work as manager of the NPOR - the National Pipe Organ Register. He showcases some of the features and links this database offers.

https://npor.org.uk

Thomas Trotter talks about how becoming organist of Birmingham Town Hall, 40 years ago,  gave him his 'lucky break' to become one of the leading concert organists in the world.

https://bmusic.co.uk/what-we-do/who-we-are/history-1/organ

Get in touch: theorganpodcast@rco.org.uk

https://www.rco.org.uk/

In this episode we hear Darius Battiwalla improvising to a 1920 silent horror film called 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Sitting at the console of the 1972 Hradetzky organ at the Royal northern College of Music, Darius demonstrates some of the musical techniques he uses when improvising to silent films.
http://www.dariusbattiwalla.com/

Tom Daggett, Director of Music at Sheffield Cathedral, talks about the work he's doing to rebuild the cathedral's choir.

 https://www.sheffieldcathedral.org/cathedral-choir

Blind organist and composer, David Aprahamian Liddle, explains the process of learning music through braille, and shares some amusing anecdotes of his encounters with Jean Langlais, Olivier Messiaen, André Marchal and Madame Duruflé.

 http://davidliddle.org/biography.htm

 Get in touch: theorganpodcast@rco.org.uk

https://www.rco.org.uk/

In this episode we join Mark Lee, Director of Music at Bristol Cathedral, as he gives a quick demonstration of some of the distinctive 'Romantic' sounds of the 1907 Walker organ - just before it gets taken away for a major restoration by Harrison and Harrison.
https://bristol-cathedral.co.uk/news/work-begins-on-our-organ-restoration-project/ 

Anne Marsden Thomas and Ghislaine Reece-Trapp talk about their recently published Oxford Book of Organ Music by Women Composers, and discuss some of the difficulties and extraordinary attitudes faced by women organists throughout the centuries.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-book-of-organ-music-by-women-composers-9780193562721?cc=gb&lang=en&#:~:text=University%20Press%20Music-,Description,from%20a%20range%20of%20periods.

Richard Gowers talks about his experience as a King's College organ scholar, working with Sir Stephen Cleobury, and how he's diversified his keyboard skills to expand his career.
https://www.rgowers.com/ 

Get in touch: theorganpodcast@rco.org.uk

https://www.rco.org.uk/

In this episode, Professor Magnus Williamson explores the sounds and history of the 1688 Smith organ in the private chapel at Aukland Castle, near Durham. Reflecting on the political and religious landscape of England during the 16th and 17th centuries, he reveals how close England came to abolishing church organs altogether.
https://aucklandproject.org/venues/auckland-castle/

We meet the man who discovered two unpublished original manuscripts by Sir Edward Bairstow, that had been left in a cardboard box for over 90 years.
https://blackburncathedral.com/event/uncovered-treasures-bairstow-in-blackburn/

Martin Baker talks about his life since leaving Westminster Cathedral, his musical upbringing and passion for improvising.

Get in touch: theorganpodcast@rco.org.uk

https://www.rco.org.uk/

In this episode,  we get a behind the scenes look at the start of the historic reconstruction of the 1877 Cavaille-Coll organ at Manchester's Town Hall with Andrew Caskie, Managing Director of Nicholson Organs.
https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500354/our_town_hall/7676/heritage_and_art/7

Tom Bell talks about his latest project of recording Oliver Messiaen's 18 movement 'Livre du Saint Sacrement' at Blackburn Cathedral.
https://www.tombell-organist.net/about

Margaret Phillips talks about her life and career, and demonstrates some of the instruments in her extraordinary collection of historic pipe organs.
http://www.margaretphillips.org.uk/index.htm

https://www.rco.org.uk/

The Organ Podcast - from February 1st - available wherever you get your podcasts.

This trailer features the voices of:
Martin Baker - former Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral
David Pipe - Organist at Leeds Cathedral and Huddersfield Town Hall
Margaret Phillips  - Concert Organist
Professor Magnus Williamson - Professor of Early Music at Newcastle University
Andrew Caskie - Managing Director of Nicholson Organs Ltd

The Organ Podcast - Presented by Mark O'Brien

https://www.rco.org.uk/

In this Episode, Mark O'Brien joins Martin Renshaw, from the organ charity, Pipe-up for Pipe Organs, as he and a team of volunteers remove an organ from a closed-down Baptist chapel in Hertfordshire. Mark also has a look around Martin's warehouse, where several historic organs are lying in storage, waiting for a new home in the UK - or about to be transported to Europe.

Pipe Up for Pipe Organs

Katherine Dienes Williams talks about her role as President of the Cathedral Organists' Association and reveals some of the concerns expressed by cathedral organists to the increasing demands of their job. She also shares her experience of being the first female Organist and Master of the Choristers in a Church of England Cathedral.

Katherine Dienes Williams

Email the Organ Podcast: theorganpodcast@rco.org.uk

https://www.rco.org.uk/

In this episode, we go behind the scenes of a live broadcast of BBC Radio 3's Choral Evensong from the chapel of King's College, Cambridge. We hear from the programme's  Producer and Sound Supervisor, as well as from the Director of Music at King's - Daniel Hyde.

The Choir of King's College, Cambridge

BBC Sounds - Choral Evensong

Gordon Stewart demonstrates the famous J J Binns (1855 - 1928) organ at Rochdale Town Hall. Showcasing the distinctive Binns sound and tonal design, Gordon explains the background to the great town hall organ tradition in the North of England.

Gordon Stewart - Concert Organist

Rochdale Town Hall

Organ Specification - NPOR


Email the Organ Podcast: theorganpodcast@rco.org.uk

https://www.rco.org.uk/