Starting at 10.00am at St. Matthews Church, Kingsley Road, Northampton NN1 4RY
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE TO NDOA, 19 MARCH 2020
Dear OA members,
You will be glad to know that the Kimbolton Members' Recital in February and the Corby Crawl on Saturday 14th March both went off well. There will be full accounts of both those events, and of the CDs choice event in January, in the Newsletter due out on 1st April 2020. I’m sure you will find the Newsletter, so ably edited by Richard Tapp, an encouragement in these difficult times.
I am conscious that we all need to be alert and considerate, while each dealing with the current challenge in our own way. I am finding Psalm 91 a great help, with its assurance that: "He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." (Are there some good settings of those words?)
The committee has considered how the Association should respond to the current health situation, and we are not making any plans for the RCO National Organ Day on Sat 18 April. I had contacted some Kettering churches – Toller, Fuller, St Andrews and SS Peter & Paul, and we can follow that up for the International Organ Day that the RCO plans for 2021.
We have not cancelled the Young Organists' Day on 9th May, but it is likely that it will not go ahead, as the church might not be open and people might not want to travel. We have a half-dozen keen applicants, aged from 12 to 26, and I will liaise with them and the parents of the younger ones and keep members informed.
We are hoping we can still go to Southwell Minster on 6th June, but it will depend on whether the Minster is open for such visits and what the rules are for the over-70s(!).
We are expecting to be able to go to Thorpe Underwood and Harrington on 18th July, to have the Garden Party on 31 August, and to have the Midlands Organ Day on 26 September, and I hope you will want to support those events.
Meanwhile, to those of you who depend on recitals and concerts and rehearsals and teaching for your income, please be assured that I realise the huge challenges you are facing. Let us hope that by pulling together the community here and elsewhere can defeat the current health threat and we can soon resume the business of making music ad maiorem gloriam Dei.
John Wilson
President NDOA 2019/20
These events are subject to alteration.
Dates, times and venues will be confirmed in the 2019 Newsletters and on this page.
St Mary & St Giles, Stony Stratford - hosted by Jonathan Kingston.
Hosted by Paul Provost. 1pm pub lunch; Minster 2.30pm; Evensong 5.30pm.
Visit to Benedict Cadbury’s house organ at Thorpe Underwood and to Harrington Church: talk on the Northamptonshire Villages Church Organ Trust.
84 Headlands, Kettering, NN15 5DQ. Garden Party 2pm; Tea from 4pm.
St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton. IAO Regional Organ Day focusing on liturgical playing, including a short recital by Callum Alger (Westminster Cathedral) and masterclasses hosted by Richard Pinel (Jesus College, Cambridge), with Andrew Reid (Harrison & Harrison) and Callum Alger (Westminster Cathedral). Open consoles will be available at St Matthew’s, All Saints' and other local churches. Followed by:
St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton, celebrating the 125th anniversary of the J.W. Walker organ - ‘the finest parish church organ in England.’
Hardwick Parish Church, hosted by Tony Edwards.
at St Mary Magdalene, Castle Ashby, followed by Evensong at 4pm with the Benefice Choir.