Your RCO event details can be found below.
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2024 sees the centenary of the death of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford which the College marks by taking our annual Organ Forum to Cambridge, where Stanford studied and worked, and was later Professor of Music. We are delighted to welcome a distinguished team of speakers and performers including leading Stanford scholar Prof. Jeremy Dibble whose book on the composer has recently been published in an expanded edition by Boydell & Brewer. Scroll to the bottom of the page to book online.
After holding an organ scholarship at Queens’, Stanford moved to Trinity College as organist in 1873, and was also appointed conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society. Stanford’s time at Trinity was marked by a number of initiatives (such as organ recitals), and not only did he establish a national musical reputation for his college, but he injected an international outlook to musical proceeding stimulated by periods of study in Leipzig and Berlin during the Trinity years. He was not only a composer of fine church music, but a composer of operas, symphonies, chamber music, and songs. With this in mind, the Forum will begin at Trinity College with a keynote talk from leading Stanford scholar Prof. Jeremy Dibble, and live music-making exploring, in true Organ Forum fashion, some examples of music we do not normally hear. We then move to the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs (where the organ was designed by Stanford and remains largely in its original state) for an organ recital, further talks and, for the those who can stay, a Sung Mass featuring music by Stanford.
Schedule
Trinity College Chapel
10.15 Registration and refreshments
10.45 Welcome
10.50 Performance 1: Sonata 2 in A major op. 70 for violin and piano, Stanford. Leora Cohen (violin), Paul Wingfield (piano)
11.15 Stanford in Cambridge - keynote talk by Prof. Jeremy Dibble
12.15 Performance 2: Part Songs and Bible Songs by Stanford performed by members of the choir of Selwyn College directed by RCO President Sarah MacDonald
12.45 Lunch (included in the attendance fee)
Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs
2.15 Another centenary: Andrew McCrea talks about Sir Walter Parratt (d.1924) and his close associations with Stanford
2.35 Nigel Kerry discusses Stanford's involvement with the organ at OLEM
3.00 Performance 3: Fantasia & Toccata op. 57, Fantasia (In Festo Omnium Sanctorum) op. 121 no. 1 (1910), Sonata Britannica. Anthony Gritten, organ
3.50 Tea in the Parish Hall
4.15 Plenary
5.00 End of Organ Forum
6.00 Mass with music by Stanford sung by the choir of Our Lady and the English Martyrs directed by Sam Barrett with Martin Baker, organ. Music to include Communion Service in B flat (arr. Chistopher Tambling) and the motets Beati quorum via and Justorum animae
Fee: RCO members £55; Non-members £75; RCO student members £30; Full time students £40
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)