Being an Organ Scholar at St Mary le Tower

In addition to several choral scholarships St Mary le Tower offers an Organ Scholarship annually. You can find out more here. An Organ Scholarship provides an excellent opportunity to participate in traditional liturgical music as well as offering accompanying and solo performance experience. 

Our most recent organ scholar, Adam Chillingworth writes about his experiences:-

"I took up the organ scholarship at the beginning of Year 9, and started off by turning pages for William, who was extremely helpful in teaching me what sounds to make and how to support the fantastic choirs at the Tower. After a short time I took on a portion of the playing and it was a great opportunity to learn all the staples of the choral repertoire, as well as some less well-known music on such a fine organ. Chris was always very supportive and encouraging, and was an ideal leader. During lockdown I enjoyed recording hymns for the virtual services and then being allowed back into the church to support Charles and Chris. The outside-of-services experiences that St Mary-le-Tower provided will be remembered for many years to come, notably the annual Messiah concert, and the Oxford Tour in 2019. I would thoroughly recommend the St Mary-le-Tower organ scholarship to any aspiring organist or church musician!"

 

Adam playing the continuo organ at our 2018 performance of Handel's "Messiah"

Adam is a talented young man who has gone on to win the Advanced Organ category of the Suffolk Festival in 2020, having won "Most Promising Organist" in 2019. A pupil at Norwich School he is now working with Norwich Cathedral. Definitely one to watch for the future!

The St. Mary le Tower Organ

The organ at St. Mary le Tower is a 3-manuel Willis organ. 

The famous 17th century organ builder, Renatus Harris, installed an instrument in the Tower at the West end. This was taken down from a gallery around the middle of the 19th century and broken up some 10 years later. This formed part of a wider rebuilding and restoration programme in the church, including the addition of the tower. Pinned to the North aisle wall is a fragment of the case, giving an impression of the scale of the instrument. 

‘Father’ Henry Willis was commissioned to build a new instrument in the north aisle of the new Chancel. This three-manual, 32 stop instrument forms the heart of the organ used today. In 1931, the organ was rebuilt by Spurden Rutt. This work included some revoicing, the installation of pneumatic action and some layout changes. 

1964 saw a return to the Willis firm. Henry Willis IV converted the action to electric and replaced the console in the style of the firm. The organ grew in size to one of some 42 stops. The 1985 overhaul was undertaken by Bishop & Son, a local firm. Further revoicing of the reeds and mixtures and the addition of some small-scale upper work took place; the action was converted to “Solid State” switching. 

Work in the 21st century has included the refitting of keys and the replacement of the pedal board in 2006 by Bower & Company of Norwich. The organ presently has 46 speaking stops and 2713 pipes.