Jubilee Organist
Everybody knows that 2012 is a special year for Queen Elizabeth 2nd – it’s her DIAMOND JUBILEE – 60 years on the Throne – God Bless her everyone.
But who knows that it’s also a special year for Trevor Schofield? Nobody much I guess!
Yes, Autumn of 1952 saw me start to play the organ and for the past 60 years I’ve spent a considerable time on the Organ Stool – or a variety of them rather!
It started when Charlie Dibney, the then organist at St. Mark’s Methodist Church, Malin Bridge asked me if I would like to learn the organ and I took him up on it and bought my first pair of dancing pumps (still got them) and unearthed an old Pedal Tutor of my dads and off I went.
It wasn’t long before I was playing a voluntary or two before the service and then the odd hymn, and as Charlie’s car was a bit unreliable, it wasn’t long before I did a whole service.
So that was the start of it. I was made assistant organist and eventually took over from Charlie in 1958, playing until St. Mark’s closed in 1977. On arrival at Wisewood I took a back seat in the Choir (literally), deputising occasionally for Mary Nuttall, and playing for odd services at other churches until on Mary’s retirement in 1981 I was appointed to the Wisewood stool!
I have never striven (or practised) to become a player of the classical repertoire such as Bach and the like but like to think that my limited ability has allowed me to be a proficient leader of music in worship.
This was also to be very useful when redundancy hit me in 1991. Work was difficult to find and I was fortunate to find paid part time employment playing for funerals around the district which I have done ever since – something I never envisaged when I first put on my organ shoes and I shall be eternally grateful to Charlie Dibney for starting me off 60 years ago.
So 2012 is my DIAMOND JUBILEE - on the Organ Stool!!
(P.S. I’ve played nearly 90 different organs in the 60 years)
Trevor Schofield