An organ scholar is a young musician employed as a part-time assistant organist at an institution where regular choral services are held. The idea of an organ scholarship is to provide the holder with playing, directing and administrative experience.
Organ scholars may sometimes be found at a cathedral or a collegiate church. Many colleges at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities, as well as other universities, offer organ scholarships to undergraduates. At some institutions (for example, Christ Church, Oxford or King's College, Cambridge), the organ scholar(s) work under the direction of a full-time professional Director of Music. At other institutions, the organ scholar is in charge of running the choir.
Many organ scholars have gone on to notable careers in music and in other fields. Two notable ex-organ scholars who went on to achieve fame in other fields are Edward Heath (who read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford) and Dudley Moore (who read music at Magdalen College, Oxford).
Read more about Organ Scholar: Organ Scholars At Universities and Colleges
Famous quotes containing the words organ and/or scholar:
“Nature is so perfect that the Trinity couldn’t have fashioned her any more perfect. She is an organ on which our Lord plays and the devil works the bellows.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“The scholar might frequently emulate the propriety and emphasis of the farmer’s call to his team, and confess that if that were written it would surpass his labored sentences.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)