Jesus College is down to hiring 12 year-old to play organ
mainFrom the Daily Telegraph:
The university struggles to fill its undergraduate organ scholarships: while 50 are on offer at any one time, only around 30 are filled and colleges have to bring in professionals to fill the gaps.
Dr Daffern said: “Playing the organ might not be the first thing people think of doing on a Sunday morning. Children have other things to do on Sundays – football and sport and stuff.
“Also, there is still an organist stereotype in people’s minds. There might be an image of them as smartly dressed older chaps. But those days are long gone. They can be fashionable and fun.”
Full story here.
photo: Oxford Academic Programmes
I’m from a family of seven pianists. We all started work at very young ages either teaching piano (I was 9) or playing for church (I was 10). My first organ job was in Wilmington, VT in a tiny church on the other side of the mountain range from Bennington, VT. It had a pump organ and I used to laugh every time there was a sustained chord – I’d often forget to keep pumping! Later on I got a job at a church within walking distance which had a pipe organ and a small chorus as well. I graduated to this position at age 12. The hardest part of this job, which I continued through high school, was getting up in the morning after having returned from my one day trip back to VT from my Saturday studies at Juilliard Pre-College Division. These early work years gave me a great foundation and I learned that hard work really does pay off.