ORGANIST
Richard Nott is an organist with almost 50 years’ experience of playing for a wide variety of Christian churches and cathedrals in London and Essex. He graduated from the Colchester Institute with a B.A.(Hons) in Christian Liturgical Music, and has become well-known as a reliable, committed and sensitive freelance organist.
Richard was the Director of Music at St Bede Roman Catholic Church in Chadwell Heath from 1998 to Easter 2023, where he played a fine example of a Cedric Arnold pipe organ. Read more about the Cedric Arnold organ at St Bede's. Since January 2024, he's been playing regularly at St Mary's, Hornchurch. If you'd like to book Richard to play for you during the week, please email him here.
Richard plays a valuable role with the Diocese of Brentwood by playing for services and RSCM examinations in addition to consulting on
the significant inventory of musical instruments available for liturgy. He also teaches the organ at the Cathedral. Richard works part-time for the Master of Music, and is currently helping to
digitise and archive the department's substantial number of recordings since 1983. His home office is full of equipment, including a lovely Revox B77 used for archiving reel-to-reel recordings of
Brentwood Cathedral Music concerts from mid-80s to the early 90s. In fact, Richard made most of these recordings at the time!! His next project is to update the register of organs in the
parishes.
Richard has played for both live and recorded television and radio programmes.
Richard is a member of the Independant Society of Musicians, the Royal College of Organists and
the Royal School of Church Music, and is a Fellow of both the Guild of Musicians and Singers and National Federation of Church Musicians.
Richard is available during the week and on Saturdays to play for weddings, funerals and other services. Please call or email him if you would like Richard to play at a service for you. His number can be found on the 'Contacts' page. Richard is always happy to give help and guidance to "reluctant" organists on a one-off basis, or for a few lessons on playing for the liturgy.
News
Hello everyone,
Welcome to my August update.
At the start of June I spent a very relaxing few days in Italy at Palazzola on Lake Albano, south of Rome. It was very very tranquil and peaceful, and I came home very rested. We went to the General Audience at St Peter's with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday and were right by the barrier he passed in the Popemobile. We got some great photos and videos
For the last couple of weeks in July I was the organist for the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. The pilgrimage was a great success, full of prayer, praise and laughter. I played many different instruments ranging from a harmonium that I had to pump through to the thrilling four manual organ in the underground basilica. If you'd like to see some photos and a video of me playing this behemoth please drop me an email and I'll try to work out how to upload them!
Now I'm back home and my diary is starting to fill up once more, although I have a few days away with friends coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm also very happy that St Mary's Primary School wants me back for another year of teaching singing and liturgical music.
On my last Thursday at St. Mary's before I went to Lourdes, I had a Meet the Organ Day in the school hall. Thanks to my wonderful friends at Allen Organs UK, I was able to have a new digital organ for the day to introduce the instrument to the school pupils (and teachers!). I took along a large collection of pipes (thanks to Andrew Stevens) that the children could look at and blow. I had each year in turn for about 40 minutes and we all had great fun. Some of the kids had a play, even if they had no keyboard experience. Unless children go to church they won't come across the organ, and I'm very keen on training the next generation of organists. Being able to take an instrument into a school is a real game changer, and it costs the school NOTHING! Allen Organs UK provide the organ free of charge, and I don't charge for my time. If you know of a school that might be interested in this event, please send me an email and I'll see what can be done.
At the start of the year I branched out into the world of mobile live-streaming. I've streamed a number of services including a few where I have streamed and played...what a niche market the Catholic Streaming Singing Organist is!
You'll find a new page on this site all about my live-streaming.
That's it for now. Enjoy your summer, and have a good break if you're going away Take care and be good!
Best wishes,
Richard
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