Leeds Organists' Association

It may seem odd to some, but I choose to preface this year’s remarks with a Darwinian quotation.

‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but rather, that which is most adaptable to change.’

To offer a précis of this opinion, we may reduce it to three words: ‘Change or Die’.

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Three years ago, Gordon Stewart was our keynote speaker at the AGM lunch, and he focussed on this association’s membership and future, and I confess that his talk on that occasion made a profound impact on my thinking. Was an organists’ association like ours one that could survive on the afterglow of its glittering past, or one that might seek to embrace a new membership, where the organists of the future looked, and perhaps sounded, different from those of the past.

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Of course, given goodwill all round, I am sure that these polar opposites can co-exist and that a middle way will become clear as time passes, but it has been my mission during this tenure as President of the Leeds Organists’ Association to open our doors wide to younger players and (and here I am seeking to avoid an unfortunate turn of phrase!) to embrace more female organists into our midst. As a result, we have several new members of the LOA, and I hope to see this trend continue into the future.

The Association was initially formed in 1936, in a world radically different from ours.  This was before the Second World War, before the collapse of Empire, before the Windrush generation, before the nuclear bomb, before the Coronation of Elizabeth the Second, and our Association has had to become both flexible to change and reflective of the world that its members live in. The organ still occupies an important role in our national identity, and those that play it are now expected to demonstrate a similar plasticity. The first President was Dr Albert Tysoe D Mus, who never had to grapple with THOSE choruses by Graham Kendrick, Funeral CDs by Beyonce or Frank Sinatra, or a female Bishop of London.  It is clear that we live in a different age.

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Thus it is that last year’s programme included a number of traditional features, and we all enjoyed a number of visits to churches and organs of great scope and variety. Thus it is that we have endeavoured to improve our skills with visits from RCO luminaries such as Margaret Phillips, Graham Barber, and a ‘Play Bach’ session with David Pipe.

On the progressive side, we have also sought to embrace more technological advances. Our interest in the Hauptwerk Virtual Organ progamme has led to five members of the LOA purchasing their own systems. We have enjoyed a website for several years, masterminded by Nelson Walmsley. This year, we have also opened a Facebook Page to talk to other Organists’ groups, as well as keeping abreast of the interests of our junior members and with Nick Seddon’s help, we have updated our domain addresses and shared email systems.

The NPOR (The National Pipe Organ Register) is a great online resource which I am pleased that we support financially. We have been working closely with local partners and have offered financial support to Organ Festivals in Leeds and Ripon. We are looking forward to hosting the world’s first open recording of hymns for organ and brass band. Since working with young people is a clear essential for our future, we were delighted when one of our committee members,  David Pipe, was recently  appointed as Education Editor for our national magazine’ The Organists’ Review’. We may enjoy our activities at home, but I am delighted that we look outwards. Some of us have joined the Society of Women Organists, run by Ann Marsden-Thomas, and many of us will support the Royal College of Organists in their National Organ Day in April this year, when we are encouraged to play as many of the nations’ organs as possible.

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(Philip then described the programme for 2020, which is available here.)

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As I reach the end of these comments, it is entirely appropriate that should offer my own thanks on behalf of all of us to those that have worked so hard on our behalf over the last twelve months.  For Ian [Lawrie] for his financial oversight, for Tony [Poles] for his minutes, for Giles for his auditing, for Roland in stepping into Gordon’s shoes after his untimely death, and above all for those committee members who have worked so energetically to offer us a programme of such rich variety over the last year. To them we offer THIS ROUND OF APPLAUSE!

However, two of the longest serving members are stepping down this year, and I would like to single them out for special mention.

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To many, Nelson Walmsley is the Association’s conscience. His knowledge of the constitution is legendary, and his e-mails, which are detailed, extensive, closely argued, and unmistakably direct in their expression would do credit to a new epistle from St Paul himself. In particular, his work with our website has been tireless, and we must formally thank Nelson’s daughter for her input on our behalf in allowing the Association to present ourselves in the best of modern lighting. Nelson, we are in your debt.

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Today we also say goodbye to our long-standing secretary David Wilks.

David’s first President was Graham Barber in 1998, and I am his eleventh in a long line of individualists. Were Charles Darwin here today, he would look at David Wilks and say:

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’My Theory of Evolution was quite right after all! Here indeed is a man who values tradition but frames it in a spirit of change.’

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Of course, David would be the first to point out that Darwin died in 1882, fifty-four years before Alan Turing produced the modern computer in 1936, and the very year in which the Leeds Organists’ Association was founded. David, your own Secretary’s report is an autobiography; it suggests a person who finds modern technology to be a blessing when it works, but a frustration when it doesn’t. In that, I believe, we all stand alongside you. However, it doesn’t say four essentials that I think it appropriate to point out.

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As a musician, you have a rare talent for expression, and a natural facility that we can only envy. Coupled with a natural open-handed generosity, and friendly disposition, it is no surprise that you have been the Leeds accompanist of choice for so many years that we have all forgotten the start of the tale. You have dazzled the congregation at Lidgett Park Methodist church for decades, and I know for a fact that they realise how lucky they have been. Finally, I might say that it would be a mistake to assume that native talent and a warm disposition is all that a musician needs. I choose to add an essential word. In any successful musicians’ armoury is persistence. Music, like administration is hard work, and requires ‘stickability’, and we have been blessed over the last tewnty-two years by your dogged persistence.

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In these endeavours, as in so much else you have been ably supported by your wife Margaret, and I would like to offer you both our warmest congratulations on a job well done. Here are some gifts from a grateful Association.

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Philip Wilby, LOA President

Feb 1st 2020

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(David and Margaret were then presented with two vouchers for Betty's Tea Rooms, a score, and an anthem dedicated to ‘David and Margaret Wilks’)