Organ Lessons
There are over 30 organ pupils within the Keyboard Studies Programme. We have enjoyed notable successes so far: a recent student is currently a Cambridge Organ Scholar reading Music, and several others are now pursuing careers within the profession as teachers and performers. There are three university student Organ Scholars at Leeds Cathedral in addition to a Sixth-Form Scholar, each receiving regular tuition in solo performance and accompaniment. Students are given performance opportunities in the annual Leeds International Organ Festival. The Programme’s organ studies strand benefits from a close relationship with the Royal College of Organists and the University of Huddersfield. Plans are afoot to publish a new tutor book for beginner organists, with encouragement and inspiration as its driving force.
The Keyboard Studies Programme has access to an excellent selection of Diocesan instruments. In addition to Leeds Cathedral’s four-manual Klais organ, there are fine Skrabl instruments in St Patrick’s Huddersfield and St Joseph’s Bradford. For practice and additional teaching, the Cathedral Chambers facility has four small pipe organs and two digital instruments.
For more information on the Keyboard Studies Programme or to be added to the lessons waiting list please contact:
office@dioceseofleedsmusic.org.uk / 0113 244 8634
‘Being a student and Leeds Cathedral Organ Scholar in the Keyboard Studies Programme truly changed my life. It gave me the chance to work on my performance with some of the best names in the UK and get my accompanying skills up to a professional level with the Schools Singing Programme youth choirs. The practical experience and skills developed during two years at the cathedral enabled me to go from a Bradford state school pupil to the Organ Scholar at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.’
Caius, 22
I have been learning the organ with Mr Pipe since September 2019 and I have been working towards taking my ABRSM Grade 3. Mr Pipe has made the lessons fun and interesting. I had the opportunity last year to play a Christmas piece at the Deacon’s 100th birthday Mass at St Edward’s Church, Clifford. I am looking forward to having many more opportunities to play the organ both at St Edward’s Church, Clifford and at school once the global pandemic restrictions allow. Learning the organ is helping with my academic work as it develops my ability to multi-task. I have an aspiration to achieve Grade 8, and in the future I would like to be the regular organist at my church, as others before me who received tuition through the Diocese of Leeds Keyboard Studies Programme have done. The organ is something I would like to continue to play at university and beyond. I enjoy hearing the sound it makes and the impact it can have in a room. I also enjoy the challenge of having to use two manuals or more and using the pedals at the same time. I thoroughly enjoy my weekly organ lessons with Mr Pipe and also the chance to play in front of a congregation or audience.
Florence, 13
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