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Annual General Meeting The NDOA Annual General Meeting will take place in the upper room of St Nicolas Church hall, Newbury, on Wednesday, 17th April beginning at 8 pm. The agenda for the meeting is shown overleaf. Please let me know if you wish any further items to be added. Although the members of the present committee have indicated their willingness to continue serving, new blood and ideas are always welcome, so do not be shy in volunteering. John Butterworth
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Newbury
& District Organists' Association
John
Butterworth |
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Chairman’s Report |
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2001 has been a successful and enjoyable one for us and we have certainly had a variety of events. As usual we have had some excellent recitals in our Thursday lunchtime series. Robert Patterson from Bradfield was a newcomer and gave a dazzling performance of works by Guilmant, Bach, Flor Peeters and Vierne. I must also express thanks to our other recitalists who have given us such a feast of organ music from a wide selection of composers and periods. On February 17th we were hosts to the Berkshire Organists’ Association, when we had an organ crawl around Newbury starting at St Nicolas and visiting the Baptist church, St Johns, Northbrook Street Methodist and then back to St Nicolas for tea followed by a combined choral evensong with members of St Nicolas’ choir. Thanks are due to the committee members and their wives who gave such sterling help with this. The next major occasion was the Newbury Spring Festival when, for the first time, St Nicolas’ organ was featured. The first event was the recital given by the talented young assistant organist of Worcester cathedral, Daniel Phillips, who played a mixture of music written for the organ by Whitlock, Bach, Sanger, Naji Hakim and Saint-Saens, as well as orchestral transcriptions of the Angel Scene from Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck), Jupiter by Holst, and Chanson de Matin (Elgar). After his brilliant recital Daniel took a master class for beginner organists. Several youngsters took part; one was already having lessons and played some Bach, while the other children were pianists of Grade 1 or 2 standard. Daniel encouraged them to add a simple pedal part to their pieces, which gave them a real sense of achievement. Despite the fact that this was on a Bank Holiday Monday, I think it was a successful exercise. Many thanks to the committee members’ wives who prepared a meal in the church hall for those involved in the organ day and for Daniel and his parents who came over to Newbury. In the evening Colin Walsh, the organist of Lincoln cathedral, performed a magnificent recital of works by Bach, Mozart, Franck and the whole of Viernes’ First Symphony. This concluded a very successful day. On June 9th a small group of us had a very enjoyable day at Bradfield College playing the organ in the parish church, then the music room organ, and finally the splendid Compton 3-manual in the chapel. Colin Burgess, who is a member of NDOA, a master at Bradfield and also an organist there, was our host and afterwards entertained us royally at his lovely house. We thank him for a fascinating and enjoyable time.On September 8th we had a steam-up on my garden railway followed by a BBQ at Robert and Charmian Willis’ house. This went off very well with no derailments or leaves on the line! Our thanks to my wife Chrissie, and Bob and Charmian for making the afternoon a success. The final event of the year was the NDAO Dinner at the Woodpecker pub on the 21st of November, which was the best attended event of the year! It was a great social evening much enjoyed by all. Our thanks go to Don and Phyllis Beaver for the work they put in on this event. Lastly I must express my thanks to Robert Willis, John Butterworth, Carl Legg, David Wood and the committee for all their hard work. David Reynolds |
Saturday, June 29th WE are pleased to announce that we are organising a Celebrity Recital and have booked Gareth Price and Graham Howell to play at St Nicolas Church on Saturday, 29th June. Please book this date and give your committee all the support you can. To be a musical and a financial success we need an audience. If you can help in any way, putting up posters, selling tickets, stewarding on the night, and so on, please contact David Reynolds or John Butterworth. Below are some notes about Gareth and Graham from a CD recorded in Douai Abbey in March 1999. Gareth Price and Graham Howell began their musical careers as choristers, Graham at Westminster Abbey and Gareth at Saint Asaph Cathedral where he was also an organ scholar. They have been performing organ duets since 1985 when they were both organ scholars at Durham University. They have given many recitals for this unusual combination at venues such as Westminster Abbey, various cathedrals including Winchester, Chester, Coventry and Worcester as well as Tewkesbury and Shrewsbury Abbeys. Their organ duet performances are complemented by solo recitals, keyboard and choral teaching and, in addition, they are both successful choral directors. |