Your RCO event details can be found below.
Please note that the 24-hour clock is used on all event listings, with all times being GMT/BST. To book courses and classes, please follow the Book Online link wherever you see it, and email bookings@rco.org.uk or call 020 3865 6998 with any queries. Where events are free or not bookable online, please follow the instructions for that event.
PLEASE NOTE: All Bach and Friends performances, detailed below, are free to attend with no pre-booking required or available. A retiring collection will be taken at each event.
After more than 300 years, J.S. Bach’s mysteriously unfinished Orgelbüchlein (‘Little Organ Book’) will finally receive a full UK premiere this September as the Royal College of Organists (RCO) presents a complete performance of a unique composition project.
The Orgelbüchlein Project has involved the composition of 118 new pieces of music to complete the unfinished Orgelbüchlein – a manuscript which the composer intended to contain 164 chorales, but which he ultimately left unfinished with just 46 completed and only the titles penned in for the rest.
Over more than a decade, project director and organist William Whitehead has commissioned contemporary composers such as John Rutter, Judith Bingham, Sir Stephen Hough, Sally Beamish, Louis Andriessen, Daniel Kidane, Roxanna Panufnik and Nico Muhly to fill in these missing pieces and rise to the project’s central challenge: if Bach were alive today, how might he go about writing a short chorale prelude in the Orgelbüchlein style?
The result is a new and complete Orgelbüchlein for the 21st century, a collection of 164 short chorale preludes containing a fascinating cross-section of contemporary European styles, together with newly edited versions of Bach’s original pieces: a grand homage to Bach, held together by the common thread of his original plan.
The Royal College of Organists’ celebratory event Bach and Friends: The Orgelbüchlein Completed, generously sponsored by Professor Christopher Wood, will mark the full UK premiere of the resulting works.
Taking place at London venues across the weekend of 23-25 September, each of nine concerts will be presented by broadcaster Zeb Soanes and feature a themed collection of contemporary pieces plus a selection of Bach’s original compositions.
Saturday 24 September
Temple Church, 10:00 (70 mins) - ‘Laws and Canons’
Charles Andrews, organ
Pieces by: David Matthews, Gerald Barry, John Caldwell, Kalevi Aho, Guy Bovet, John Butt, Poul Ruders, John Frandsen, Andrew Synnott, Tarik O’ Regan, Louis Andriessen, Thomas Ospital, Ad Wammes, Ullrich Böhme. By Bach: BWV 600 618 620 624 635 636 643.
St Brides, Fleet Street 11:30 (65 mins) - ‘Symbols and Pictures’
William Whitehead, organ
Pieces by: Grayston Ives, Naji Hakim, Franz Danksagmüller, Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Stephen Barber, Robert Saxton, Enjott Schneider, Anthony Powers, Alastair Putt, William Whitehead, Edward Higginbottom, Rhian Samuel, Vincent Paulet, Nils Henrik Asheim, Daniel Beilschmidt. By Bach: BWV 607 621 622.
St Andrew’s Holborn 13:30 (70 mins) - ‘Trinity’
Tom Bell, organ, with special guests, the Fred Thomas Trio
Pieces by: Solfa Carlile, Robert Quinney, Geoffrey Webber, Sally Beamish, Joris Verdin, Elena Langer, Till Alexander Körber, Matthew Martin, David Briggs. By Bach: BWV 629 632 633 639.
St James Garlickhythe 15:00 (60 mins) - Launch of Vol 3
Kyoko Canaway, organ
Pieces by: Bryan Kelly, Richard Gowers, Piet Kee, Jörg Abbing, Franz-Josef Stoiber, Joanna Marsh, Justė Janulytė, Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Robert Walker, Christopher Fox, Axel Ruoff, Ernst Wally, Thomas Daniel Schlee, Andrew Carter, Thea Musgrave, Francis Grier, Jon Laukvik, Philip Moore. By Bach: BWV 609 625 637 638.
St Paul’s Cathedral, Evensong 5pm, with organ music starting at 16:30.
The music sung at Evensong will include Bach.
‘Grand scheme’ Imogen Morgan, organ
Pieces by: Cecilia McDowall, Roxanna Panufnik, Gabriel Jackson, Sven-David Sandstrøm, Barnaby Martin, Grégoire Rolland, Guy Olivier Ferla, Richard Pantcheff. Voluntary after Evensong: Michael Stephens-Jones, BWV 627.
Sunday 25 September
St George’s, Hanover Square 13:00 (60 mins) - ‘The Dance’
Tom Bell, organ
Pieces by: David Maw, Roderick Williams, Paul Ayres, Andrew Keeling, Jeremy Thurlow, Frederick Stocken, David Franke, Silas Wollston, Benoît Mernier, Andrew Gant, Jacques Pichard, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Zsigmond Szathmáry, Andreas Fischer. By Bach: BWV 601 608 612 617 631 644.
Methodist Central Hall, Westminster 15:00 (70 mins) – ‘Luther’
Gerard Brooks, organ
Pieces by: Gerard Brooks, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Daniel Saleeb, Francis Jackson, William Cole, Hayo Boerema, Ruth Byrchmore, Andrew Arthur, Joanna Ward, Stephen Hough, Catherine Kontz, João Vaz. By Bach: BWV 599 604 606 611 616 619 626.
St George's , Hanover Square 17:00 (70 mins) - ‘A Requiem in Homage to HM Queen Elizabeth II’
Martyn Noble, organ, with the Choir of St George's
Pieces by: Lionel Rogg, Christian von Blohn, Lorenzo Ghielmi, John Scott Whiteley, Alec Roth, James O’ Donnell, James Francis Brown, Peter Shepherd / William Whitehead / Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Pierre Farago, John Rutter, Alexander Campkin, Gregory Rose. By Bach: BWV 602 613 614 630 641.
St George's, Hanover Square 19:00 (70 mins) - Bach: A Celebration
William Whitehead and Jeremiah Stephenson, organ
Pieces by: Peter Holder, Loïc Mallié, James Lark, Jonathan Dove, Thierry Escaich, Nico Muhly, Daniel Kidane, Simon Johnson, Sebastian Forbes, Nigel Allcoat, David Bednall, Ronny Krippner, Iain Farrington, Peter Planyavsky, David Till, Giles Swayne, Francis Pott. By Bach: BWV 603 605 610 615 623 628 640 642.
Additionally, the weekend opens at 16:00 Friday 23 September with a Bach Masterclass at City of London School, given by John Scott Whiteley and concluding at 6pm with an informal recital by the masterclass players.
For RCO courses and classes, the following key is used as a guide to level and suitability:
Beginner (Grades 1-4)
Intermediate (Grades 4-6)
Advanced (Grades 6-8 / CRCO)
Diploma 1 (CRCO–ARCO)
Diploma 2 (ARCO–FRCO)