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:
“What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself. Him we do not respect, but the soul, whose organ he is, would he let it appear through his action, would make our knees bend.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The scholar requires hard and serious labor to give an impetus to his thought. He will learn to grasp the pen firmly so, and wield it gracefully and effectively, as an axe or a sword.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)