Carol originally gave me this interview several years ago. I’m republishing it here to mark her performance at the forthcoming AGO National Convention in Seattle, which I’m very much looking forward to.
Dr Carol Williams was British born, in a musical Welsh family, and was giving recitals by the time she was eight. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music, then with Daniel Roth at St Sulpice, Paris, before moving to the USA for postgraduate studies at Yale University – gaining many prizes and awards along the way. In 2001 she was appointed the first woman Civic Organist, in the City of San Diego, California, and gives concerts every Sunday on the magnificent Spreckels Outdoor Organ in Balboa Park. More on the Spreckels Organ below. Carol’s performances take her all over the world – her aim is to bring the organ to new audiences, and her programmes include every genre from classical to pop and jazz. Go to The Official Carol Williams Channel on YouTube, where you can find her playing all kinds of instruments, from the Cavaille-Coll at St Sulpice to the Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ. (My favourite is Carol on the (hand-blown) 1610 Compenius Organ in Denmark.) Carol’s own website is here. In the meantime, here are Carol’s answers to my five questions:
What piece of music are you studying at the moment, and why?
Two extremes: the Vierne Toccata in Bb minor – then a whole collection of Blues music for our closing festival concert. As I play a concert every week, I am always rehearsing! And at the Spreckels Organ in Balboa Park, I play “all” types of music.
What has been your best experience as an organist?
Wow – I have had many great experiences. But one I would savour – playing a 12 hour concert to raise money for our wounded warriors coming back from war. I raised over $15,000. I was amazed at my energy for this – I had never done anything like this before.
What has been your worst experience as an organist?
Well, I think battling with the cold. Hands, feet and brain all suffer!
What’s the best piece of advice you were given by an organ teacher? (and who was it?)
The late and great David Sanger, whom I studied with for 5 years, said “never stop being a student”.
What would be your own best piece of advice for student organists?
Travel. Meet people. Play the organs of the world and learn. In playing somewhere like St. Sulpice, you then realise what Widor played when he wrote the 10 Symphonies. The acoustics and the action of the Cavaille-Coll will make you really understand about tempo etc.
John D Spreckels donated the Spreckels Organ to the City of San Diego in 1914, on the condition that concerts would always be free. One of the largest outdoor pipe organs in the world, with 73 ranks of pipes, it competes successfully with the low-flying aircraft coming in to land at the nearby San Diego International Airport. A steel shutter protects it from the weather when it’s not in use, and Carol says it stays remarkably well in tune. It costs about a quarter of a million dollars a year to keep the organ in good shape and present the concerts, but the Spreckels Organ Society raises this and also helps pay for the salary of a full time curator for the organ. Their website has more on the history of the organ and its specification, and more about the regular Sunday afternoon concerts. Future plans for the organ include webcasting of the Sunday concerts, and the funding of a Centennial Tuba rank of pipes in time for 2015.
what is the name of the organ music in signature tune of “On the bench with Dr Carol”?
Hi Don – I’m based in the UK so not familiar with it. Can any US readers help? Morwenna