Do you need an assistant?

I've been to an organ concert recently
where students played a joint recital.
What struck me the most was
how many of them did need an assistant.

An assistant to turn pages,
an assistant to draw stops,
an assistant to engage couplers.

This organ is all mechanical
rather modest size studio instrument.

It would be wise to train the students
to practice doing all the work by themselves
whenever possible, of course.

That would come very handy on numerous occasions:
when improvising,
when trying out unfamiliar organs,
when playing for church services.

All of those experiences demand
​a solo work from an organist.

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Ausra's Harmony Exercise:
Diatonic Sequence in G Minor: i-i7-iv​

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Do you have a photo to share?

Frank Mento: Seated at the console of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at Saint-Jean de Montmartre Church in Paris, France, where I was Titular Organist from 1979 to 2015 (listen to his story).

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