Church set to offer organ scholarship

St George’s Church, West Grinstead is planning to offer the Leslie Weller Organ Scholarship from September 2016 to nurture talent in a teenage musician who can assist at services and ultimately feed into the wider pool of available organists. The proposal is modelled on similar schemes administered by the Royal School of Church Music.

Applications will be open to male or female students, most likely aged between 15 and 19 and studying for university entrance with music as one of the subjects offered at A-level.

It is anticipated that the successful candidate would be attending a local secondary school or sixth form college.

The scholarship, value of £900 pa, should cover about ten organ lessons as well as some travelling expenses. It is hoped that the successful candidate’s family would fund at least a further five. The scholar will be expected to assist with music at about 25 services a year and help with some choir practices. He or she will have relatively unlimited access to the church’s two historic organs built by G.P.England (1795) and Forster & Andrews/Bishop&Son (1846/2016).

Initial enquiries and further information from interested students should be made to Dr A.C. Campbell 01403 710376.