The New School of Organ Studies

Trustees

The Trustees are Roger Lander, Roy Meek, Robin Coxon and Andrew Parnell

Roger Lander
is a Chartered Accountant and lifelong church organist. He has been organist of Woburn Parish Church for 26 years and also plays for weekday services at All Saints Leighton Buzzard. He is finance director of the International Organ Festival at St Albans and treasurer of the Cambridge Academy of Organ Studies (CAOS).

Roy Meek
is chairman of the Luton Branch of NSOS and Organist at St. Augustine's Church, Luton.
He plays regular recitals, the most recent of these at Luton Parish Church (where he is the Recitals Coordinator),St. Augustine's Church, Luton, St. Peter's Church, St. Albans,Marlborough Road Methodist Church, St. Albans, Bury Park URC, Luton, Wesley's Chapel in London, St. Ulrich's Church in Austria and a short visit where he played in Hong Kong Cathedral.
Roy retired after 40 years in the National Health Service as Principal Scientific Officer in Pathology at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

Robin Coxon
was a chorister at Durham Cathedral in his home county and later took a mathematics degree at Durham University, gaining his FRCO the same summer.

After early retirement from teaching Robin gained the Braille Proficiency Certificate of the Royal National Institute of the Blind, and now spends part of his time as a voluntary transcriber of books into Braille. He has been Organist of St Francis Church, Welwyn Garden City since 1976, and in 1998 became Chairman of the St Albans branch of the New School of Organ Studies (NSOS) and organiser of the Tuesday lunchtime Organ Recitals arranged by the school at Marlborough Road Methodist Church, St Albans. In 2005 he became a Trustee of NSOS, and in March 2006 was installed as President of The Organ Club for the next two years.

Andrew Parnell
For 25 years, Andrew Parnell’s professional career was centred on St Albans.  He was Assistant Master of the Music and Director of the Abbey Girls Choir at St Albans Cathedral, Music Master and Choral Director at St Albans School, and Conductor of the St Albans Symphony Orchestra.  In 2001, he relinquished these posts to establish a freelance career as an organist, composer and conductor. 

He has accompanied Norwich Cathedral Girls Choir on tour in Holland, has worked as acting Assistant Organist at the Cathedrals in Ely, Canterbury (twice), Wakefield and Southwell, and has fulfilled many engagements around the country as organ soloist or accompanist.  Last term, he was privileged to be engaged as acting Director of Music at Ely Cathedral.  Recent recitals include St Andrew’s Hall in Norwich and Newcastle Cathedral.

His church music compositions have been performed in cathedrals and churches both in the UK and abroad and are on the catalogues of four publishers.  Since 2003, newly commissioned works have been performed in Canterbury, Ely and St Albans Cathedrals.

He became the conductor of the Ely Choral Society in September 2002 and the Wymondham Symphony Orchestra in February the following year. He joined the Cambridgeshire Choral Society as Principal Conductor in 2004.   His conducting career offers him a wondrous variety of delights from Bach to Britten, carols to concertos, Schumann to Stravinsky, and Messiah to madrigals.