Event Guide

THSH Town Hall, B3 3DQ

Mondays 1pm Thomas Trotter13 Mar with Conservatoire Chamber Choir

27 Mar – Raul Prieto Ramirez10 Apr (SH) music for Holy Week

24 Apr, 8 May, 22 May, 5 Junwww.thsh.co.uk

Holy Trinity, Wordsley, DY8 5RU1 Apr 1.30pm Peter KingSunday Afternoon Organ Music 3.00pmPaul Carr 2 Apr, 7 May, 4 Junwww.paulcarr.co.uk

St Chad’s Cathedral, B4 6EU

Thursday Live1st Thursday of the month, 1.15pm6 Apr David Saint4 May Paul Carr1 Jun Paul Carrwww.paulcarr.co.uk

Emmanuel, Wylde GreenB72 1YG, Andrew FletcherFridays 1pm,7 Apr, 5 May, 2 Junwww.andrewfletcher.org.uk

BOA newslettervolume 13 no 1

Spring 2017

or click here to start

Birmingham Organists’ Association affiliated to the Incorporated Association of Organists

www.BhamOrgan.org.uk www.iao.org.uk

President: Mick Perrier 07967 595881

Secretary: Paul Evans 07504 857088

Assistant Sec: Nick Fanthom 07917 444077

Treasurer: Alan Taylor 07415 855082

Forthcoming events

AGM & ANNUAL RECITAL

SATURDAY 1ST APRIL, 11.00AM

Holy Trinity, Wordsley,DY8 5RU. Click for details.

AN EVENING WITH REGENT

RECORDS

WEDNESDAY 3 MAY, 7.45PM

Broadway URC, Walsall,WS5 3PH. Click for details.

SUMMER OUTING TO YORKSATURDAY 3 JUNE

Including visits to hear & play up to five city centre organs

PROGRAMME FOR 2017/8Plans for the rest of 2017/8 are

currently being finalised. We expect

to have details ready for the AGM on

1st April

In this issueFuture events: Past event reviews:

• Social: beer & skittles

• Visit to Garnier organ

• AGM & annual recital

• Regent Records

• Summer outing to York

• IAO Music Festival

• OrganFest 2017

Saturday

1 April

11.00am

Holy Trinity,

Wordsley

DY8 5RU

This event will follow the usual pattern adopted in

recent years as shown above. We are delighted to

welcome IAO President and recently retired Director

of Music of Bath Abbey, Dr PETER KING, as this year’s

recitalist. Details & booking arrangements have been

circulated and a copy is attached to this newsletter.

The cost of £12 covers coffee, a buffet lunch with

juice & wine, and admission to the recital. Lunch

must be booked in advance by 25th March: so don’t

delay!

Guests are welcome at the recital. Admission to the

recital only is £5.

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An evening with Regent RecordsAGM & annual recital

Wednesday

3 May

7.45pm

Broadway United Reformed Church,

Gillity Avenue

Walsall, WS5 3PH

BOA member and founder of Wolverhampton-based

Regent Records, GARY COLE, will give an illustrated

talk about his work at what is now one of the top

classical location recording companies in the UK.

Regent’s CD catalogue features many and varied

examples of organ and choral music. There will be an

opportunity to hear some of them and – if you wish –

purchase.

The church is situated at the junction of Walsall ring-

road (A4148) and Sutton Road (B4151) and has a

large car-park.

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IAO Music Festival (formerly Congress) 2017

Following an outstandingly successful IAO Festival in the city of Bath last summer, with over 150 people attending, the IAO’s major annual event this year is to be based in the historic city and university of Oxford.

July 23th – 27th http://festival.iao.org.uk

Full details and booking arrangements are available via the above link to pages on the IAO’s website. Details and a booking form may also be found in Organists’ Review.

The cost – which includes admission to all venues in Oxford and coach transport to Blenheim Palace & Eton College, – is still only £179. Tickets for the Festival Dinner in Exeter College must be purchased separately. Delegates are being invited to arrange their own accommodation, but details are given of the hotel being used by the Festival Committee. If you choose to use this hotel, early booking is recommended, because room rates increase as percentage occupancy rises.

Saturday3 June

An “organ crawl”

is planned in York

city centre,

organised on our

behalf by the vice-president of the York association,

Maximillian Elliott. All the venues are within reasonable

walking distance of each other, and are expected to

include All Saints North Street (II,15), Central Methodist

(III,42) and St Olave’s (III,43). We plan to end the day

with Choral Evensong in the Minster at 5.15pm.

The travel recommendation is to use the direct train

service from New Street departing 0830, currently priced

at under £25 for railcard holders. For those without rail

discount cards, it may be possible to arrange car sharing,

so if interested, please contact Alan Taylor by email or on

0741 585 5082.

More details will be circulated to members later.

A summer outing to York

Beer & skittlesPaul Evans

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HULL:UK city of culture

Friday 8th - Saturday 9th September

OrganFest is this year to be based inHull City Hallfeaturing its huge

(4-manual 141 stop) concert organ

Festival adviser: JOHN SCOTT WHITELEYOrganist Emeritus: York Minster

Booking is expected to open in May, but please

PUT THE DATES IN YOUR DIARY NOW!

Hull is easily accessible by rail from Birminghamin under 3 hours,

and the Hall is a short walk from the railway station

For the latest information and booking details, visit

www.organfest.org.uk

Provisional programme(may be subject to change)

Friday 8 Septemberfrom 5.30pm

Welcome from the promoters:BIOS, IAO, RCO

and Hull & East Riding Organ Group

Desert Island Discs,with “live” performances of music by

JOHN SCOTT WHITELEYand featuring BBC TV personality

HUW EDWARDSinterviewed by SIMON LINDLEY

Recital by COLIN WALSH

Saturday 9 Septemberfrom 10.00am

Recital of music composed byHull-born composer

Alfred HollinsTalk by Hull City Hall organ curator

JOHN PEMBERTONabout Hull-based organ builders

Forster & AndrewsANDREW McCREA celebrates

Dr Francis Jackson at 100Illustrated talk about the

project to complete Bach’s

OrgelbüchleinYoung Organists’ Forum

including an opportunity to hear themplay the City Hall organ

Grand Finale Recitalby KEVIN BOWYER

featuring theatre organ music

Two days of inspiring events forlovers of the organ and its music

BOA member Paul Geoghegan in action!

On Monday 23January wepaid a returnvisit (after a gapof six years) to the Walsall Arms for another beer and skittles evening - this time with beer! Members may remember that on our last visit the pub was in transition between landlords and had no licence so it was a case of bring your own bottles.

This time there were no such problems, on the contrary there was a wide choice of real ale and we were also provided with an excellent buffet. The skittles match was duly played with the same team captains as last time, Paul Evans and Nick Fanthom. The return match proved highly satisfactory from your writer’s perspective with a convincing win over Nick and his team leaving us one all. So there is all to play for on our next visit.

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Members were able to enjoy two hours of exploring this ratherchallenging but delightful instrument, with much Bach playing andeven a du Mage Tierce en Taille. It was a fascinating experience.

Henry Fairs at the main console, surrounded by BOA members

It had proved difficult to find a suitable time-slot in the Hall’s busyschedule, but in spite of this visit having to be arranged in themiddle of a working day (Monday 27 February), about a dozenmembers managed to make their way to the Bramall MusicBuilding of Birmingham University to hear and play the new organby French builder Marc Garnier.

Our guide was Henry Fairs, university organist (and BOA member),to whom thanks are due for making all the necessaryarrangements. Henry began by demonstrating the “chair” organ,played from a single keyboard situated so that the organist facesthe audience. This employs mean-tone tuning at A=415Hz and has“subsemitones” (split accidentals): here D# is not the same as E♭ !

Coping with this and the unconventional key layout at the bass endof its compass needs much practice – as I discovered. Even themore conventional main organ console had pitfalls for the unwary,as the pedalboard is straight and flat - definitely a hazard for thosemore comfortable with the RCO standard – and the manual keysare fractionally smaller than usual, not to mention flat stop jambs.

Of course, all this (as Henry explained) is intended to giveConservatoire students (and others) experience of the type ofinstrument found in parts of continental Europe, particularly thosethat aim to authentically reproduce historic organ-building.

Visit to the Elgar Concert HallAlan Taylor

Sat 10 June Nicholas Miller St John’s, Hyde Park, London

Sat 8 July Callum Alger St Peter’s,Wolverhampton

Sat 5 Aug Christopher Cipkin St Anne’s, Moseley

Broadway United Reformed Church, Walsall, WS5 3PH

Saturday morning “Coffee & Cake” recitalsRefreshments from 10.30am, recitals start 11.15am

Admission FREE: retiring collection.Programme details will be available HERE

before each event.