Anne Marsden Thomas MBE

In 1986 she co-founded The London Organ Day, and in 1990 she was responsible for National Learn the Organ Year which attracted over 2,000 applicants. Two years later she founded St Giles International Organ School. She has always worked in harmony with other organists’ bodies, especially the Royal College of Organists (RCO). Now working as Head of RCO Academy Organ School, she continues to co-ordinate the activities of a team of 21 teachers and the studies of around 300 organ students. The annual programme includes individual tuition, regular classes and a summer school which regularly attracts over 70 students.

In order to provide a range of study resources for students and teachers, she has written and edited a range of books and anthologies, including the 5-volume Graded Anthology for Organ which includes the textbook A Practical Guide to Playing the Organ (Cramer Music, 1997), the 6-volume Oxford Service Music for Organ (OUP, 2010/2011), the 5-volume Oxford Bach Books for Organ (OUP, 2014) and Pedalling for Organists (Cramer Music 2014). She has also published many articles for organists and their teachers, including the long-running series Anne Marsden Thomas’s Organ Lessons published in both Church Music Quarterly and The American Organist.

Anne has been Director of Music at St Giles Cripplegate Church, London, where there are three pipe organs, since 1982. Her concert and teaching work has taken her to the USA, Japan, Europe and all over the UK, and she has made several commercial recordings.