Simon is Organist and Director of Music at St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, in the centre of London. Simon and the choir there broadcast regularly on BBC Radio3 and Radio4. He trained at Durham University and The Royal College of Music, and has given many recitals in churches and cathedrals across the UK and in France, Germany and Italy. He’s also Music Director of Harrow Choral Society. He teaches students at all levels – as Director of RCO Academy, he’s in charge of the education programme at the Royal College of Organists (and often has the unenviable task of coaching us in the Diploma aural tests on study days.) Here are Simon’s answers to my five questions:
Which piece of music are you studying at the moment and why?
Hindemith’s 2nd Organ Sonata. The 50th anniversary of Hindemith’s death spurred me to learn either the first or third sonatas (ideally both) but the time to do this has so far eluded me. Instead I’ve fallen back on revisiting the 2nd sonata which I have not played in its entirety for far too many years.
What has been your best experience as an organist?
Am I allowed more than one? Priorities change as the years go by but the memories remain!
As a student organist: playing the Final to Vierne’s Third Symphony in Durham Cathedral.
As a tourist, dropping into Notre Dame de Paris with my wife for a quick look, and finding Solemn High Mass for All Saints’ Day in progress. The mixture of High Catholic Ceremony, framed by the architecture, with the thrilling sound of the organ was almost sensory overload.
Recently: Hearing the new Richards, Fowkes & Co organ at my own church of St George, Hanover Square, develop week by week as it was voiced. The sound of the Great chorus encountered for the first time sent shivers down my spine!
What has been your worst experience as an organist?
I try to forget these as quickly as possible! One was when a church cleaner who, having heard me practise some Messiaen for a recital said, just 30 minutes before it was to start, “you’re surely not going to play that!” As a schoolboy beginner, playing the organ in an informal concert for the first time and reaching the final cadential bars of the G minor Prelude from the ‘Short Eight’ and hitting completely the wrong (dissonant) chord. I could not then imagine anything worse happening to an organist. Experience has taught me that perhaps worse things can happen.
What’s the best piece of advice you were given by an organ teacher? (and who was it?)
Use the inside edges of your feet to play the pedals. This came not from my organ teacher at school, who was happy for me to ‘develop’ my own technique, but from a French master called Godfrey McGowan who also played the organ. It was quite a few years before I realised he was right and I got around to reforming my pedal technique!
What would be your own best piece of advice for student organists?
Assuming you have a good teacher, listen to what they say and act on it between lessons, practising carefully and taking responsibility for your own progress. It’s too easy to be in a hurry!
St George’s Hanover Square is the parish church of fashionable Mayfair, and has always been a popular venue for society weddings. Handel is probably the best known parishioner, attending the church from his home in nearby Brook Street for over 30 years. Simon and the church are very hospitable, hosting organ events as well as regular recitals and concerts. More about concerts and recitals on the church’s website. (And as you take your seat, check the roll call of past churchwardens in gold lettering up around the balcony, which reads like pages from Debrett’s Peerage.)
The next organ event will be the London Organ Day in March next year (see events) which focusses on the strong links between St George’s and the USA.
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