Organists Review
Organists' Review is a quarterly magazine for organists, choral musicians and everyone who loves the organ and its music. Published by the Incorporated Association of Organists (IAO), it serves as the association's public face and is described by its publisher as the leading magazine for all lovers of the organ. Each edition explores in depth a theme of current interest through a wide range of articles, alongside regular features including reviews of recordings, books and new music, interviews with professional organists and composers, festival details and features on new and historic instruments worldwide. Starting life primarily as the quarterly magazine of the IAO, it later became available to all readers by subscription, in print and in digital editions, reaching a readership that extends well beyond the association's membership.
The magazine of the Incorporated Association of Organists
The IAO is a registered charity whose purpose is to help provide education and training relating to organists and the wider public. At the time of its 2021 editor recruitment, the association comprised over 4,500 members worldwide and was open to all lovers of the organ and its music. Although many of its members are organists and choir trainers, its programmes — many arranged by its more than seventy affiliated associations — appeal to a much wider circle. Organists' Review functions within that structure as the organisation's quarterly journal and its public face, carrying the association's educational mission into print.
That relationship explains the magazine's character. It is neither a purely academic journal nor a purely commercial consumer title, but a membership magazine opened up to the general market: expert in content, yet written for enthusiasts as well as professionals. Its editor takes a leading role in deciding the overall future direction of the magazine, commissions articles and reviews, decides on layout, liaises with the designer and printer, prepares the digital issue and represents the magazine at events such as OrganFest, the IAO Festival and the annual IAO London Organ Day.
Publication pattern and availability
Organists' Review is released quarterly, four issues a year, in step with the seasons of the organ world: the September, December, March and June issues structure much of its surviving catalogue. Subscription listings have offered a year's subscription of four issues for £32, with each issue delivered directly to the subscriber's door. Digital editions are sold through magazine platforms and apps, where single issues, back issues and subscriptions can be bought and read on phones, tablets and computers, and special editions have been issued alongside the regular quarterly numbers.
The move to digital widened the magazine's reach without changing its identity. A publication once received primarily by IAO members became discoverable by any organ enthusiast searching a digital newsstand, and back issues stretching back many years remained on sale. For a specialist readership spread across cathedrals, parish churches, concert halls, schools and universities — and across many countries — that accessibility mattered.
Inside an issue: themes and features
Each edition of Organists' Review explores a theme in depth, surrounded by news, expert analysis and the regular review sections. The September 2025 issue shows the formula at work. Gerard Brooks, celebrated for his interpretations of French Romantic repertoire, assessed the organ works of Eugène Gigout, while the composer Roxanna Panufnik described her new Cum Jubilo Organ Mass to Huw Morgan. Two influential organists of different eras were considered: C. S. Lang, whose tenure at Christ's Hospital was described as legendary, and the organist-composer Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, who had celebrated his eightieth birthday that January.
The same issue visited a wide variety of new instruments, from the four-manual Eule organ at Magdalen College, Oxford, to the growing collection of organs at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, heard from two celebrated improvisers, Daniel Roth and Martin Baker, travelled to Belgium for the latest instalment of its postcard series, and carried a scholarly study by Jason Tang, then a master's student at the Royal Academy of Music, examining the influence of Tudor music on Herbert Howells. The blend of repertoire study, instrument reporting, interview and travel writing in a single issue is characteristic of the magazine.
Instruments: new and historic organs
Organs themselves are among the magazine's great subjects. No two instruments are alike, and the building, rebuilding and restoration of organs in cathedrals, colleges, concert halls and churches provides a steady stream of news. The June 2018 issue, for example, concentrated on instruments rather than players, looking at two educational instruments — one at Newcastle University and one at the Royal College of Music — built for very different purposes, and at the Orgelpark in the Netherlands, where a largely traditional mechanical instrument, future-proofed in its design, had brought the venue's total to eight organs in one room.
Earlier issues ranged just as widely. The September 2016 issue carried a lead article by Andrew Scott on the change of pitch at Peterborough Cathedral, discussion by Andrew McCrea of changes in qualifications at the Royal College of Organists, a joint Cambridge and Oxford account of the organ scholarship application process, and a look at the fortieth anniversary celebrations of the organ in Trinity College, Cambridge. That mixture of practical, historical and institutional knowledge is what readers expect: the organ is an instrument embedded in buildings and communities, and the magazine reports on all of it.
People: organists, composers and scholars
The magazine's pages are populated by the profession it serves. Interviews and profiles feature concert organists, cathedral organists, composers, teachers, organ builders and scholars, and its contributors are drawn from the same world. Among its regular authors, Paul Hale has been writing for Organists' Review since 1983 and edited it for fifteen years. Following an organ scholarship at New College, Oxford, his career embraced cathedral organist posts at Rochester and Southwell, teaching, choral directing, recitals, writing and organ consultancy; he has been an examiner for the Royal College of Organists and in 2017 received the Thomas Cranmer Award from the Archbishop of Canterbury in recognition of his service to the Church of England.
Another regular voice, Kevin Bowyer, won five international first prizes as a performer, played concerts around the globe and made over a hundred solo CDs, held a senior lectureship in organ at the Royal Northern College of Music for nine years, and has been Organist to the University of Glasgow since 2005. Contributors of that calibre give the magazine authority: its articles on repertoire, technique and instruments are written by people who perform, teach and build at the highest level.
Reviews and new music
Reviews are a regular and valued department. Each issue reviews recordings, books and new music, guiding readers through a steady flow of organ CDs, scholarly and practical books, and newly published scores. The September 2016 issue was noted for an extensive review section after the panel was inundated with items, with an Editor's Choice receiving five stars — evidence of both the volume of new organ recording and the magazine's role in sifting it. For church and concert organists choosing repertoire, and for listeners building a collection, those pages function as a trusted filter.
The attention to new music matters particularly in a field sometimes caricatured as backward-looking. By reviewing and discussing newly composed organ works — as in the coverage of Roxanna Panufnik's organ mass — the magazine documents a living repertoire in which composers continue to write for the instrument and organists continue to commission and premiere work.
Education, qualifications and professional life
Reflecting the IAO's charitable purpose in education and training, Organists' Review regularly addresses learning and professional life. Articles have covered the route to becoming an organ scholar at Oxford and Cambridge, changes in professional qualifications, festivals and courses, and the experiences of younger players entering the profession. Steven Grahl, as artistic director, wrote about the IAO Music Festival he had put together, illustrating how closely the magazine's contributors are involved in organising the events it reports.
This educational strand serves readers at every stage: the parish organist accompanying weekly services, the student preparing for diplomas, the choral director choosing repertoire, and the teacher guiding the next generation. By treating technique, repertoire, examinations and careers as part of one conversation, the magazine reflects the reality of a profession in which most practitioners combine several of those roles.
The wider organ world
Although British in origin, the magazine's horizon is international. Its features visit organs and festivals abroad — the Orgelpark in Amsterdam, a postcard from Belgium — and its contributors perform and teach worldwide. The IAO itself welcomes members across the globe, and its affiliated associations arrange programmes with wide appeal. Organists' Review mirrors that geography, reminding readers that the organ, for all its roots in British cathedral and parish life, is an international instrument with distinct national schools of building and playing.
The magazine also connects its readers to a calendar: festival and event details, association activities and gatherings such as the London Organ Day give the print journal a community function. In a profession whose members often work alone in organ lofts, that sense of a shared world — its news, arguments, anniversaries and achievements gathered quarterly — is central to the title's appeal.
Readership and significance
Organists' Review is aimed at professionals, admirers and those learning about the organ alike: established organists, fans of the music, and readers who simply wish to understand an instrument of classical royalty. Its combination of insightful interviews, eye-opening articles and photography of instruments has made it, in the words of its subscription listings, a must-have for those who wish to immerse themselves in the culture of the instrument. It also preserves a written record of organ building and performance that would otherwise be scattered across programmes and newsletters.
As the quarterly journal of the Incorporated Association of Organists, now available to all, the magazine occupies a durable niche in British music publishing. Four times a year it gathers the organ world's scholarship, craftsmanship, repertoire and people between one set of covers — a kaleidoscope of the organ world, as its digital publisher puts it — and in doing so it helps preserve and evolve the conversation around organ music and its place in today's world.
