The Committee of the Old Southendian Organ Society wishes to inform you that our Annual General Meeting for 2024 will take place online on Wednesday 10th April 2024. The call will open at 8:00pm to allow attendees time to set up and connect ahead of the start time of 8:15pm.
The formal notice and agenda is available here, and includes details on how to join the Google Meet call.
Update Tues 9th April: The Reports and Accounts for this year's AGM are available here for reference by attendees. The Minutes of the 2023 AGM may be found here.
Read a report on Zakariya's year as School Organist - a brilliant read charting his aspirations and accomplishments since arriving at the school surrounding the instrument. View the report here - thanks, Zak, for sharing with us all!
The Committee of the Old Southendian Organ Society wishes to inform you that our Annual General Meeting for 2023 will take place online on Saturday 29th April 2023. The call will open at 2:45pm to allow attendees time to set up and connect ahead of the start time of 3:00pm.
The formal notice and agenda is available here, and includes details on how to join the Google Meet call.
Update: The Reports and Accounts for this year's AGM are now available to download ahead of the call here for reference by attendees, and the Minutes of the 2022 AGM may be found here.
Read a report on Harsh's year as School Organist, including his thoughts on the process of learning and composing for the organ here. Thanks, Harsh, for sharing with us all!
Tickets are now available for our next concert: see our events page for more information.
The Committee of the Old Southendian Organ Society wishes to inform you that our Annual General Meeting for 2022 will take place online on Wednesday 20th April 2022. The call will open at 7:45pm to allow attendees time to set up and connect ahead of the start time of 8:00pm.
The formal notice and agenda is available here, and includes details on how to join the Google Meet call.
The Reports and Accounts for this year's AGM may be found here, and the Minutes of the 2021 AGM may be found here.
We hope you will join us for a varied programme of music for Remembrance, to include music from the War Memorial Organ at Southend High School for Boys. See our events page for more information and to book your tickets.
Read a report on Emmanuel's most unusual year as School Organist, with his reflections on the experience and the skills he has gained here. Thank you to Emmanuel for sharing this for us to read!
The Committee of the Old Southendian Organ Society wishes to inform you that our Annual General Meeting for 2021 will take place online only due to present COVID-19 restrictions on Tuesday 20th April 2021. The call will open at 7:45pm to allow attendees time to set up and connect ahead of the start time of 8:00pm.
The formal notice and agenda is available now here, and includes details on how to join the Google Meet call.
The minutes and reports from our 2020 AGM are available here.
Added 20th April 2021: Reports from the Committee for this year's AGM are available here.
We are pleased to announce a second series of live recordings of the War Memorial Organ for 2021, performed by Warren Symes, for you to enjoy from the comfort and safety of your own homes. Over the coming weeks we will release an exciting and varied programme, with pieces by Pietro A Yon, Mendelssohn, Buxtehude, Stanford, Vierne and more...
We start the series with the grand "Festive Trumpet Tune" by David German, which is now available on the videos page of this website.
We hope you will enjoy seeing more of our organist and the organ in the recordings, with extra photography of the hall and wider school captured by friend and supporter of the Society, Craig McGarrigle, who also kindly filmed and produced this latest series.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and like us on Facebook to be notified of new videos. All videos will also be released on our new videos page. We are grateful to Warren for recording this music to share with our supporters.
Thank you to all of you who have been able to continue supporting us. If you enjoy the series and feel able to extend your support, we would be very grateful.
Catch up with our latest online concert with Richard Brasier this Christmas, as pre-recorded on the War Memorial Organ at Southend High School for Boys on our videos page.
The Committee of the Old Southendian Organ Society wishes to inform you that our formal Annual General Meeting for the year will take place online only due to present COVID-19 restrictions on Tuesday 27th October 2020. The call will open at 7:25pm to allow attendees time to set up and connect ahead of the start time of 7:45pm.
The formal notice and agenda is available now here.
Update: We have now uploaded the minutes and reports from our 2019 AGM here, and reports from the Committee for this year's AGM for you to read here.
Naturally, we were saddened not to be able to welcome John Dixon back to the school in July for a concert of his own compositions. However, he has kindly forwarded details of an event from The American Guild of Organists (AGO) that may be of interest to our supporters.
This week, between 20th July and 24th July, the AGO will run their first online OrganFest. Through videos released each day, the series will broadcast performances by Jens Korndörfer, Amanda Mole, Alan Morrison, Thomas Ospital, and Catherine Rodland, alongside additional performances by recent international organ competition winners. More information on this exciting (and free!) initiative, including links to each day's programmes and videos, may be found on the festival website.
John is also sharing a score for one of his compositions as part of the OrganFest, which some of you may be interested in to whet your appetite ahead of when we can welcome John back to Southend to perform!
We are pleased to announce a series of live recordings of the War Memorial Organ, made by Warren Symes, for you to enjoy from the comfort and safety of your own homes. We will release a video or two each week, with a programme featuring many favourite pieces from J.S. Bach, Karg-Elert, Handel, Vierne and more...
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and like us on Facebook to be notified of new videos. All videos will also be released on our new videos page. We are grateful to Warren for recording this music during a check of the organ's mechanisms, and to Jonathan Roberts for his technical assistance in making the recordings available.
Read a report on Ben's year as School Organist, with his thoughts on learning and performing on the organ, highlights from the year, and the role of the organ in the School today here. We are grateful to Ben for producing such an interesting read!
UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN POSTPONED for the safety of our audience and performers due to the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Please see our events page.
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Come for this unique event as John Dixon (Tuscany, 1968-75) returns to play a recital on the War Memorial Organ of his own compositions from both his published and unpublished catalogues. More info available via our events page.
The Committee of the Old Southendian Organ Society wishes to inform you that we will host an online update on Wednesday 29th April 2020, starting at 7:45pm. Arrangements for our formal Annual General Meeting are deferred until further notice, in line with guidance from the Charity Commission of England and Wales and the Government. However, the online update will cover the same set of reports from Committee members on the Society's activities, operations and finances, and offer an opportunity to ask questions of the Committee.
Full information on joining the meeting via Google Meet on your PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet app, or telephone are available here.
Reports from the Committee are available to download here.
UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED for the safety of our audience and performers due to the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Please see our events page.
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We are pleased to announce our first event of 2020: a mid-week recital from talented singers Voces Novae, plus music from the organ, tracing some of the best compositions from the 16th Century to the present day with music by Morley, Bach, Wood, Chilcott (and more...)!. More info available via our events page.
Award winning ladies choir Cantare will sing an enjoyable evening of festive favourites, alongside carols and music for Christmas from the organ at Southend High School for Boys, in support of the Organ Society. More info available and book your tickets now via our events page to avoid disappointment.
Join us for a varied concert with something for everyone: from solos on the War Memorial Organ, to music from an eclectic mix of instruments and voices. See our events page for more information and to book your tickets.
Acclaimed organist Jeremy Blandford returns to the school with a recital including music by Bach, Mozart, Elgar, Whitlock, & Reubke, played on the Hill, Norman & Beard instrument.
This event will offer the exclusive chance to see the organ up close, including a look inside the organ chamber to see the 1228 pipes and mechanisms that make the instrument sing! See our events page for more information and to book your tickets.
A evening featuring a varied programme of music, in support of OSOS and the church.
More information to follow - see our events page for updates and to book your tickets.
Please note the change of venue for this event, due to unforeseen circumstances.
Thomas Stanford (Sparta, 2011-18) reports on his year as School Organist in an article for the Society. View the report here! The manuscript of the School Song compiled by Thomas during his year as School Organist is now available to download: see our School Song page.
A mixed evening of music from wartime and for remembrance, featuring the rebuilt War Memorial Organ at Southend High School for Boys alongside other instruments, voices and performers.
More information to follow - see our events page for updates and to book your tickets.
As part of the preparations for the concert by internationally acclaimed musician and OSOS President Adrian Lucas to celebrate the rebuilding of the school organ, we interviewed Adrian on his time at school, his career since then, and the recent work and activities of the Organ Society.
On June 16th 2018 Adrian will give the inaugural professional event on the organ, with a celebration of the achievements that have led to the successful rebuild. Tickets are now available for this event via TicketSource, and booking is highly recommended.
We are excited to confirm that on April 19th 2018, we will have our first preview of the rebuilt War Memorial Organ at Southend High School for Boys with an event featuring the organ alongside school, student and recent leaver performers and with varied instruments and voice. See our events page for more information and to buy tickets online now via TicketSource.
Adrian Lucas will follow on June 16th 2018 with the inaugural professional event on the organ, with a celebration of the achievements that have led to the successful rebuild. Tickets are now available for this event too via TicketSource, and booking is highly recommended.
The report on this last transformational year, as written for the Old Southendian Association magazine, can be viewed here.
Come on Saturday 16th June 2018 at 7pm for an event not to be missed from OSOS: internationally acclaimed musican and organist Adrian Lucas (OSOS President and former pupil) will be exploring the rebuilt organ at Southend High School for Boys. More information to follow on our events page.
We are also very excited to announce that the organ will be expanded with a Trombone stop using pipework previously in use in Pershore Abbey within an organ by Nicholson, now enabling the completion of the specification envisaged when the rebuild commenced. See more about the organ rebuild on our project updates page, and read how you can support the organ appeal.
Our next concert will be on 23rd September 2017, starting 7pm at St. Augustine's Thorpe Bay. More details on this varied event may be found on our events page, tickets will be available on the door.
Pictured is The Southend High School for Girls choir, Novem Consort, who joined us as guest performers in this event. You may download the full programme here.
We are pleased to announce that, since June 2017, a major project to professionally rebuild the organ, which aims to secure its future well into its second century, is under way! Read more about the work to the War Memorial Organ, and join many other Old Southendians, friends, and other donors in supporting the organ appeal. You may find more news from the project on our updates page.
Keenan Ngo, the current School Organist at Southend High School for Boys, took on the challenge of the Essex Organists' Association competition in March 2017 and came away victorious. Congratulations Keenan! A report from Keenan on his experience is attached with photos from the day here.
We are delighted to announce that our next concert will be held at Southend High School for Boys on the evening of Saturday November 19th. Please see our events page for more information.
The report on the year, as written for the Old Southendian Association magazine, can be viewed here.
In July 2016, OSOS was pleased to support a group of SHSB students in their visit to St Paul's Cathedral to hear Vincent Dubois. Jack Duffield tells of their experience in this report.
We are pleased to announce plans for our next concert on Saturday April 16th at Southend High School for Boys. See the events page for the latest information.
After the great success of the organ's expansion with reed, flute and mutation stops added to the Great keyboard, we are pleased to announce that work has commenced to add a pair of string stops to the Swell keyboard.
These quiet but incisive string-toned pipes will add yet another distinctive sound to the organ's specification. We are hopeful that work will continue in 2016 - listen out for some new sounds from the organ later on in the year!
An update as at March 2016 can be found here.
Read about recent works to the organ here.
The report on the year, as written for the Old Southendian Association magazine, can be viewed here.
See the programme from our evening of music on September 12th at SHSB on our events page.
A short report on how the organ features in School life today has been added, written by current pupil George Cobley here.
The Annual General Meeting for 2015 will take place on Monday 30th of March 2015. Please get in contact to register your interest in attending and for further information.
A page with information (and links to further details) on the School Song (including a recording) has been added! Take a look here.
An article about the formation of OSOS and recent SHSB organ history was published in the 2014 OSA Magazine. See a PDF copy of the article here.
Our President and internationally acclaimed organist, Adrian Lucas (Tuscany 1972-79), provided a great evening of entertainment, entitled 'Organ Extravaganza' on October 24th at 7:30pm. Find out more, including photos and the programme from the evening.
