James Parsons - Organist

Oundle International Organ Archive

It proved a game-changer; we’d spotted a vacuum: there was no forum for teenage organists (who often felt isolated) to meet peers as friends rather than competitors, and, with inspiration from internationally-eminent recitalists and church musicians, to develop their craft as ‘musicians who played the organ’. From day one at Oundle International Festival with Summer School for Young Organists, organ classes were embedded in a vibrant classical music festival, featuring artists from many genres; thus, several rows of young organists occupied the front seats at piano recitals, chamber music and early-music performances, jazz, comedy and cabaret, drama, and attended art exhibitions.

The first Summer School for Young Organists drew some twenty-nine students. As the bus rolled on, the following twenty-four years nurtured growth on a remarkable scale, with extended provision, not just in Oundle Northamptonshire but in Oxford, Cambridge, London and around the country, as too in France. The following pages show the scope of a developing movement – listing the thousand and more who attended over the first twenty-five years, and were inspired; many are now at the top of their game as prominent professional concert organists, competition winners, directors of music, conductors, composers, scholars, teachers and high-level movers-and-shakers in cultural circles.

The concurrent festival events are similarly shown.

If you spot your name, please do make contact to share your recollections of the Oundle … experience.

James Parsons
Founder, and Director (1985-2009)
Oundle International Festival/ Oundle for Organists