2017
Events > Reviews
What were BOA members up to in 2017?
Date | Venue | |
6 Dec 17 | Café Rouge, The Mailbox | Christmas Dinner with Worcestershire Organists Association A private room at a city centre restaurant, conveniently close to New St station, was the venue for this year's BOA dinner, when we were again joined by friends from WOA. Our guest after-dinner speaker was PAUL HALE, who entertained us with many stories about his earlier life in and around Birmingham, including at Solihull School. |
| 30 Oct 17 | St Nicolas, Kings Norton | Annual Service This year's service was directed by BOA member SYLVIA FOX and included a hymn-tune by Birmingham-born composer John Joubert. Having both played and directed the choir during the servuce, Sylvia delegated the closing voluntary to BOA President Mick Perrier, who produced an improvisation in French toccata style on the final hymn. |
25 Sep 17 | Carrs Lane Church Centre | Bach in the 21st century GORDON STEWART was our guest speaker for this well-attended, informative and frequently amusing evening about some current issues and preoccupations with playing Bach's organ music. He was ably assisted by WILLIAM PEART, an organ student from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Refreshemnts were arranged by Carrs Lane Organist Dr Tim Batty. |
| 5 Aug 17 | Walsall | Recital and "organ crawl" Members first joined the audience at Broadway URC (IV-51) for a recital by BOA council member CHRISTOPHER CIPKIN. After lunch, there was an opportunity to hear & play the organs of St Matthew's (IV-74) and St Jude's (II-10, see left), the latter a rare surviving UK example of the work of August Gern, foreman to Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. |
23 Jul 17 | Oxford | IAO Music Festival Several BOA members joined well over a hundred others at this year's IAO Festival (formerly Congress), which included visits to Blenheim Palace and Eton College as well as recitals in several Oxford college chapels, the Holywell Music Room, and a masterclass & interview with DAME GILLIAN WEIR (left). |
3 Jun 17 | York | Summer outing and "organ crawl" BOA members enjoyed splendid weather for our trip to York. Kindly arranged for us by President-Elect of York & District Organists' Association, MAXIMILLIAN ELLIOTT, we were able to visit up to seven organs ranging in size from a single-manual 3-stop instrument in St Martin's to a 54-stop 3-manual in All Saints, Pavement. The day concluded with Choral Evensong at the Minster. A photographic record is available. |
3 May 17 | Broadway URC, Walsall | An evening with Gary Cole of Regent Records A fascinating insight into the career of BOA member GARY COLE, one of the UK's foremost record producers and founder of Regent Records, a leading UK organ/choral label with a catalogue of hundreds of CDs and DVDs. His presentation was illustrated with, among others, his DVDs of City Organist Thomas Trotter and his CD of BOA past-president Paul Carr. |
1 Apr 17 | Holy Trinity, Wordsley | AGM and annual recital NORMAN ASHFIELD, CHRISTOPHER CIPKIN and PAUL GEOGHEGAN were elected to serve three-year terms on Council. After the AGM and lunch, we were delighted to welcome IAO President and Organist Emeritus of Bath Abbey Dr PETER KING (left), whose recital programme included music by Ireland, Mendelssohn, Reubke, Saint-Saens and Schumann. |
27 Feb 17 | Elgar Concert Hall | The new Garnier organ in the Elgar Concert Hall of Birmingham University HENRY FAIRS was our guide to what is essentially two organs in the concert hall of the university's Bramall Music Building: the "chair" organ with mean-tone tuning and "split" accidentals and the rather more conventional main organ, but still with straight pedal-board and smaller than conventional keys. |
23 Jan 17 | The Walsall Arms | Social evening: Beer & Skittles A long-awaited (since 2011) return visit to this traditional Black Country pub with real ale and a private function room with skittles alley. A generous buffet was enjoyed and Paul (Evans)'s Principals gained their revenge with a victory over Nick (Fanthom)'s Nazards. |