EXAMINER IN MUSIC

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 18

EXAMINER IN MUSIC

Noted Organist. Choirmaster Dr. Sydney Watson, a professor at the Royal College of Music. London, has arrived in Christchurch to conduct practical diploma examinations for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Dr. Watson was educated at Warwick School, the Royal College of Music, and Keble College, Oxford. He was organist at Keble College from 1923 until 1925. At the Royal College of Music he was a pupil of Sir Charles Stanford, Dr. Charles Wood, Dr. Henry Ley, and Dr. Thalben Ball, and studied with Sir Adrian Boult.

He has been director of music at three public schools —Radley, Winchester, and Eton. He was organist of New College, Oxford, from 1933 until 1938 and is now Student (Fellow) and organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. His chief musical activities have been as an organist and choirmaster, as a university musical instructor and lecturer, and as a conductor. He is conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir and the Oxford Orchestral Societv. in 1946 he succeeded Sir Adrian Boult as conductor of the Petersfield Festival, an appointment which he relinquished in 1964. Dr. Watson has been an examiner for the board since 1943.