Matthew Martin is a composer, organist and choral conductor, and is currently Precentor and Director of Music at Gonville & Caius College Cambridge. He has been commissioned by, amongst others, the choirs of Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, The Tallis Scholars, The Gabrieli Consort, and The Sixteen, and won the Liturgical category in the 2013 British Composer Awards. Matthew spoke to Huw Morgan, OR’s Deputy Editor, before Christmas.

Howard Skempton is recognised as one of the UK’s most renowned and respected living composers. Born in Chester in 1947, he has also had a career as an academic (he currently lectures in composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire), as an accordionist, and as a pianist. He has also worked as a music publisher.

A seven-year-old asks Anna Lapwood for advice on playing the organ. Anna Lapwood MBE is an international concert organist and Director of Music at Pembroke College Cambridge. Arwen is a Year 3 pupil at school in Bristol, where she sings in several choirs and is learning the violin.

OR is delighted that organist Jonathan Scott and his pianist brother, Tom, have shared some musical insights and highlights from a season in their international performing career.

On 18th June 1944 a flying bomb struck The Royal Military Chapel (The Guards’ Chapel) in Westminster during the Sunday morning service. The roof collapsed onto the congregation below, killing over 120 people, including members of the Band of the Coldstream Guards and their Director of Music.