Andrew Prior of Islington is the ninth organist to play in this season of Wednesday@One organ recitals. We spoke to him about his upcoming organ recital to find out what we can expect from his programme as well as finding out more about his career.Could you give us an introduction to how you got into music?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">I was a chorister in the local village choir when I was a boy and started learning the piano at around the age of five at school. Whilst singing in the choir I was rather captivated by the organ. My piano teacher was an organist in a neighbouring village. I wasn’t very good at practicing diligently, so he said that if I could get a piece I was learning ready by the following week, he’d let me play it on the church organ. That was when I was aged about eight and it just stuck, as I really enjoyed the experience. I soon was able to play hymns at church services and then voluntaries, and it went from there.</span>My parents, very kindly, bought me an organ for the house. We had a small sun lounge at the back and they bought a three manual and pedal reed organ, which is quite unusual, but it fitted into the space and it became my practice instrument.At fourteen, I became the organist at my local church, which was great fun, and at the same age I was asked to play for my sister’s wedding at St. Bride’s, Fleet Street, which is one of the big churches in London. I was terrified at the prospect, but I played for her wedding and conducting that service was the Director of Music at HM Chapels Royal at Hampton Court. Afterwards he wrote to my father and said that he had been very taken by my playing and invited me to be the first organ scholar at HM Chapels Royal! I started that at the age of fifteen-and-a-half.You were a solicitor by profession; did you find music was a good balance with that?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">It was an excellent balance. We sold the reed organ we had to a solicitor /organist with whom we became good friends. My parents had come across a wonderful organ builder called George Sixsmith, whose organ company in Ashton-under-Lyne is still going. They built a very small two-rank extension pipe organ for our sun lounge. There were two ranks of pipes contained in a swell box with a glass front, and attached was a two manual and pedal organ. Our solicitor friend told me that if I ever wanted to go into the profession to let him know. My organ scholarship at Hampton Court helped my CV greatly in applying for an organ scholarship to Cambridge, which I was awarded in 1976. But an alternative career in the law remained an option.</span>When I went up to Cambridge I soon realised that I was up against people like John Scott, Thomas Trotter and David Hill, all wonderfully talented people, and I thought to myself that I couldn’t compete with them as they were so much better than me, so I took that solicitor up on his offer.As an aside, in 1977, in my first term I went to stay with my senior organ scholar in Bingley and he took me to Bradford Cathedral as John Scott was playing the opening recital on the newly restored organ by Walker. So it’s wonderful to be coming back.I took up the legal profession with the aim of playing the organ, keeping music as an informal hobby. I kept it going, but drifted a bit for ten years until I found myself deputising for a church in Surrey which had the most amazing organ made by Frobenius, a Danish organ builder, and I had a new lease of life there, being the organist for eleven years.I had the most wonderful time doing that until I was around the age of forty, by which time my job moved me from being local to London, so I didn’t have time to practice and so I let it slip again.I carried on playing for for friends and families at funerals and weddings but when I reached sixty, almost two years ago, there was a restructuring at work and I was made an offer for early retirement, and the figures worked out. My wife, at the time, was working at All Saints, Margaret Street, where Dame Gillian Weir, the wonderful organist who taught me at Cambridge, was in the office. She asked what I planned to do with my retirement and she told me to get back onto the organ bench and get playing!At this same time a professional organist friend had just bought a Hauptwerk organ, and given his enthusiasm for the way technology had moved on, I was inspired to purchase a system for our home which was installed in the attic of our house in North London. Alex Berry, your Director of Music then paid us a visit through a mutual friend, and we played on the instrument and chatted about my return to playing, which led to him to set me a target to give a recital in Bradford in a year’s time, and so here we are!With your music, travelling and photography you’re enjoying your retirement?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">I’m loving it! It’s so fulfilling as my day will start with some organ practice and then I take photographs for people who need profile shots for their website, and I have just worked on photographs for the front cover of Organists Review. Those two hobbies are keeping me more than busy, not to mention travelling as well. Life couldn’t be better!</span>For you, what makes a good lunchtime organ recital?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">I think the objective is to ensure that everyone who goes home after recital has liked something. They might have been informed by a piece or a composer they don’t know; they may have been wowed by something that was exciting; or they may just carry a tune away with them. One of the pieces I’m playing is Elegy by George Thalben-Ball, who was remarkably famous in his day, and was organist at Temple Church in London. I went to the City of London School and all the choristers would come from the school and I got to know Thalben-Ball very well indeed. He was a wonderful and inspirational man. He advised that when you give a recital, you should make sure that you have given pleasure to those who’ve come along to hear you. You may have a musician there, an academic, or a shopkeeper, or someone who has just popped in for forty minutes in their lunch break. You can’t be too esoteric or too academic; you have to give a good variety.</span>How did you pick your pieces for your recital?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">J.S. Bach is always going to be key in my view. Of all the composers who wrote for the organ, Bach is really supreme, and so it’s always a good thing to include some of his music. And his great mentor was Buxtehude, so that gave me the shape for the start of the recital. In between these composers, I have some chorale preludes from composers from Norway, England and France, all written for the Orgelbuchlein Project of which I’m a trustee and patron. That project came about because Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, or ‘Little Organ Book’ was intended to contain around 164 choral preludes based on the hymn tunes of the day, but Bach only completed 46, leaving blank pages, some with just the title, or the title and the tune.</span>My very good friend William Whitehead started the project to complete the book but with composers from the modern day, composing short chorale preludes to fill the gaps. This project was completed last year and to celebrate the achievement I decded that whenever I give an organ recital I should play some of the pieces, to get them out there to make people aware of this great work that my friend did over these years in encouraging composers to come forward and compose!So, from Germany to England, and alongside my tribute to George Thalben Ball with his Elegy, another wonderful piece, the Canzona by Percy Whitlock.Then we finish with France. Thalben-Ball often played Fiat Lux by Theodore Dubois, and so I thought I’d end with that, and precede it with a beautiful and quiet piece from the same volume of twelve pieces, In Paradisum.I therefore hope that there’s something for everyone in my organ recital!I imagine that variety keeps things interesting for you as the player?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">It does, because each piece has its own challenges. The three pieces from the Orgelbuchlein Project are so different: one is very slow, one is very delicate, and one is quite bonkers! They’re three representative pieces from the project and they give me a challenge in registering them to bring out their character, which of course applies to all the pieces I’ll be playing. I’m looking forward very much to acquainting myself with the instrument so as to produce the colours to show them all off well.</span>Finally, do you have any big plans for the rest of 2020?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">More recitals! I’m grateful to Alex Berry for inviting me to give this recital, as I’d not really intended to give organ recitals on an on-going basis. I’ve really loved this challenge as its renewed my enthusiasm for communicating music to wider audiences, so on the strength on this I have another recital to give in South London in October and before then a recital in a Stately Home in Wiltshire.</span>Join us for our weekly Wednesday@One Organ Recitals at 1pm, with a lunch buffet available from 12:30pm. Andrew Prior will be playing on Wednesday 11th March 2020. More information on this recital, all others and this season’s coffee concerts can be found in the programme available to buy from the recitals and concerts.
Nigel will be presenting the next Monday Fellowship talk at Bradford Cathedral on Monday 9th March at 2pm. His subject is ‘My life as a countryside volunteer’ and ahead of it we spoke to him to find out more about him, what to expect from his talk, and some of his favourite local walks.Can you give us an introduction to yourself?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">My name is Nigel and I’m one of the volunteers for Bradford Countryside and I’ve done that for thirty-five years now. I lead walks for Bradford and for Kirklees. I’ve always liked walking. I come from London and there were only a few places to walk there; to get to the countryside would involve a bus ride, which I used to do with my mates. We didn’t know much about public footpaths: we just walked across fields, and got chased by farmers occasionally!</span>When I moved up to Bradford, my wife got a dog and I ended up as the one walking it! So I did that and eventually moved onto walking in Bradford around 1984. The person at the back was David Parsons, who oversaw the volunteers. He asked me then whether I’d be interested in leading a walk, but at that point I didn’t know anything about that. David invited me along to the next meeting and I went along and they started to teach us things like map reading, how to talk people when outside and where to stand to get people to listen so they can see you, and it all went from there.Walks must be good, both socially and for health?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">Yes, especially in Bradford. They do weekday walks mainly now and can get up to 120 people per walk!</span>Do you have a particular favourite walk that you most like?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">I have several. I like going through Judy Woods but I have another walks as well around the district.</span>You are speaking at the Monday Fellowship in March; what will you be talking about?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">I’m going to take them back to my roots, and how I don’t come round from here, where I lived and how I used to enjoy going out into the countryside, taking a bus or train out and walking back. Where my cousin lived was actually only about 2-3 minutes from the countryside, as he lived in north-west London and they were still building it around there, and there were lots of places to go. I’ll also talk about how, coming up here, how I started walking, with Bradford and then a year later with Kirklees. I’ll be talking about what interested me when I was down in London and what interests me now from a walking point of view.</span>How can people get involved with walking and become a Countryside Volunteer themselves?<span style="font-size: 1rem;">They would need to get in touch with Danny Jackson on Bradford Council as he’s the one who takes all the people who’ve said they’d like to give it a go. He will invite them along to see them, take notes on what they like and don’t like, and send out a pack. Then you can come out on walks and be helpful back-ups on walks and to find out what’s involved. When you’ve done about six of those there’ll be discussions about the walks, and put walks on.</span>If you want to come and do a walk you can pick up a walking leaflet from the Visit Bradford Tourist Information or online. I try to give people good details and which bus to catch that sort of thing.At the moment I’m doing some ‘web walks’ with Bradford Council, where you can print them off and go and walk them. These were done in around 2008 but they need checking and I’m letting them know if there are any problems on them, as quite often after twelve years paths might be taken out and you might end up leading people into someone’s garden!
"May I speak in the name of God who, in this season of #Lent, calls us to take up our cross and follow Him."Listen back to this week's Sunday sermon preached by the Reverend Canon Dr Flora Winfield at https://bradfordcathedral.org/worship/listen-back
As spring approaches here are some of the highlights of events happening in Bradford Cathedral this March!Fairtrade Breakfast<span style="font-size: 1rem;">As Fairtrade Fortnight nears its close for another year we mark the half-way point with our annual Fairtrade Breakfast. It’s happening on Sunday 1st March from 8:45am to 9:45am. It’s free to come along but you can donate to help support the Traidcraft Foundation. Expect Fairtrade muesli, jam, marmalade, tea and coffee, along with locally produced honey and butter, plus lots more. Find out more on our blog post.</span>Art<span style="font-size: 1rem;">Our Artspace exhibition for Lent runs all the way through this month, with the artwork displayed in the Artspace area around the cathedral. Come and see artist Ali Thistlethwaite’s paintings and find out more about her and her work on our blog post.</span>Music<span style="font-size: 1rem;">This month we welcome pianist Jill Crossland for our next monthly Coffee Concert. It’s taking place on Tuesday 10th March from 11am (with refreshments at 10:30am) and it’s free to come along! Find out more about Jill in our interview with her.</span>If you like to be more involved in your music our Singing Day with Professor Paul Mealor is taking place on Saturday 14th March from 10am – 6pm and will see the composer behind the Military Wives Christmas Number One presenting some of his excellent compositions. Find out more about the member of the Classic FM Hall of Fame on our special blog.On Sunday 15th March the cathedral choir join up with the Bradford Catholic Boys Choir for a Bradford Boys Choir Festival. At 10am there is the Mass at St Joseph’s Church, Bradford followed at 4pm by Vespers here at Bradford Cathedral. On Sunday 8th March there’s also a Safari Evensong as our girls choir visits St. Andrews at Aysgarth from 4:30pm.We also wrap up the month with our Earth Hour Candle-Lit Concert with Ben Comeau at 8:30pm on Saturday 28th March. Marking the international event, this is a concert not to be missed. Find out more in our interview with pianist Ben Comeau.Our Wednesday@One Organ Recitals also continue throughout March, with free entry and starting at 1pm each week. Join us for Kurt Rampton from Birmingham on Wednesday 4th March, then Andrew Prior (Birmingham), Ed Jones (Worcester) and Joshua Stephens (Sheffield) on subsequent Wednesdays. There’s also an optional buffet lunch at 12:30pm before each recital for just £4.Faith Trail<span style="font-size: 1rem;">The Bradford Faith Trail returns for its new season on Saturday 7th March. On the first Saturday of each month you can discover more about the faith communities along Leeds Road. With five places of worship all within walking distance of the city centre, you can learn about the traditions and cultures from those who practice them.</span>The Faith Trail meets at 10:15am at St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Leeds Road. The trail includes a vegetarian langar lunch and finishes at Bradford Cathedral around 3:30pm.The trail is very popular so booking is essential via education@bradfordcathedral.org or by calling 01274 77 77 20.Lent<span style="font-size: 1rem;">We continue to mark the season of Lent throughout March up until Palm Sunday on the 5th April. This year’s Lent Course takes place on Wednesday evenings on the 11th, 18th and 25th March. You can join us for refreshments at 6:30pm with the talk starting at 7pm. The course is followed by night prayer at 8:15pm. Find out more on our Lent page.</span>We also have a range of Lent Books on sale in the shop, plus guides for Lent for adults and children with activities to do on each of the 40 days. There’s also a special prayer leaflet from Prayer4Bradford. All these can be collected from the blue desk in the cathedral.<span style="font-size: 1rem;">Other March events</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">There are other events and services happening in March. At the Monday Fellowship on Monday 9th March Nigel presents a talk on My Life as a countryside volunteer. Join him in the Parish Room at 2pm.</span>On Thursday 19th March we host the annual Civic Service where the Lord Mayor, Councillors, Officers and Council employees gather with other leaders and representatives from all areas of City life to celebrate the wonderful diversity of Bradford and its unity of vision and purpose. Join us from 5pm.You can also celebrate Mothering Sunday with us on Sunday 22nd March from 10:15am. On Mothering Sunday we hold together two traditions. From our English past we give thanks to God for Mother Church; for the ways in which the church nurtures us and cares for us. From the more recent past we give thanks for our own Mothers and for those who have mothered us. During our Mothering Sunday Choral Eucharist, flowers will be given out as a gift to all women present.And on Tuesday 24th March we welcome visitors in to discover more about William Morris on what would be his birthday. You can find two early examples of Morris & Co stained glass window work in the cathedral as well as our beautiful Morris & Co altar frontal in the Lady Chapel. There will also be video highlights on our big screen and the chance to pick up a booklet to find out more about the William Morris windows. Come and visit between 8:15am and 6pm.And finally…<span style="font-size: 1rem;">As mentioned in previous blogs, 2020 is the Year of Cathedrals, Year of Pilgrimage and we now have prayer cards to pick up in the cathedral, with a different design at each cathedral in the country. Can you collect them all? You can also pick up your Pilgrimage Passport and you can pick up a sticker at Bradford Cathedral and all Anglican cathedrals around the country. How many will you visit in 2020?</span>The March edition of our Keeping in Touch magazine is now available to pick up at Bradford Cathedral, or you can view it online.There are also many regular meetings throughout the month including Stitching@Bradford Cathedral, Carers’ Crafts, the Women of Faith Book Group, our Toddler’s Group and Just A Minute, as well as Places of Welcome and our monthly Bring and Share Lunch. You can find out more on our website about when they meet, or why not follow us on Facebook and join the events?Make sure you pick up a copy of our what’s on booklet from Bradford Cathedral or around the city to find out more, or view it online. Our events and services continue in April with Holy Week 2020 including Messy Easter, alongside a Coffee Concert with James and Alex Woodrow. Family Activities return on Thursday 16th April and we wrap up with Hope on the Edge: Care of Planet Earth on the final Sunday. Find out more about these and lots more in our April blog, appearing at the end of March.
