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:
“But alas! I never could keep a promise. I do not blame myself for this weakness, because the fault must lie in my physical organization. It is likely that such a very liberal amount of space was given to the organ which enables me to make promises, that the organ which should enable me to keep them was crowded out. But I grieve not. I like no half-way things. I had rather have one faculty nobly developed than two faculties of mere ordinary capacity.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Take a decayed Christian ... and the remains of a Stoic; mix thoroughly with good manners, a bit of money and an old-fashioned education; simmer for several years in a university. Result: a scholar and a gentleman. Well, there were worse types of human being.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)