Harrison Cole dead at 25

Harrison Cole, 25, assisting organist, King’s College, Cambridge, UK, died June 6. Born in 2000, he was a music scholar at Ipswich School, Suffolk, during which time he spent three years as a student in the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music. There his teachers were Anne Marsden Thomas (organ), Alexander Walker (conducting), and Debbie Diamond (continuo). Following a gap year organ scholarship at Wells Cathedral he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, as organ scholar in 2019, working with Stephen Layton. Upon graduation he spent a year as assistant organist at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before moving to King’s College in September 2024. 

There Cole accompanied the choir on recordings, broadcasts, and concert tours, including two A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols services and tours to Australia, Estonia, the United States, and Canada. Harrison was due to move this summer to assistantships at St. Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, and St. Michael’s Church, Cornhill, London, from which he was planned to develop a freelance career as pianist, organist, and conductor.