January 2020

Bruton Parish Church is immediately recognizable as an important and large edifice among eighty-eight original and intact eighteenth-century structures in Colonial Williamsburg where hundreds of other early houses, shops, and public buildings have been reconstructed. Founded in 1674, the name of the parish comes from the town of Bruton, in the English county of Somerset, which was the ancestral home of several leading Colonial figures. Construction of the present building began in 1712 to a design of Governor Alexander Spotswood and was completed three years later.

Lee T. Lovallo Pipe Organs, Antelope, California

Renaissance Choir Sacramento, Sacramento, California

It was the only paying job I’d ever had.

So said Ralph Vaughan Williams, speaking on the biographical DVD, O Thou Transcendent, as he talked about his first—and only—church organist position.

The British and French Organ Music Seminar (FOMS) took place in London, Paris, and Alsace, July 4–18, 2019. Founded by Christina Harmon in 1986, FOMS has taken place biennially since.

London

Thirty-seven organists and friends began the seminar with a Fourth of July celebration at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London. The group was treated to Evensong and a concert by Ken Cowan on the Henry Willis organ (1872), originally built by Bernard Smith (1697). Afterwards, our host Simon Johnson demonstrated the instrument and invited participants to play.

When you blow through here, music comes out.

Nunc Dimittis

Stephen Cleobury, former director of music at King’s College, Cambridge, died November 22 in York, UK, his home since he retired in September, after a long illness. He was born in Bromley, in Kent County in southeast England, on December 31, 1948.

2019 East Texas Pipe Organ Festival features a harpsichordist