RCO adopts management of National Pipe Organ Register

The Royal College of Organists will take on the responsibility for the day-to-day management of the National Pipe Organ Register (NPOR) from 1st July.

The NPOR is a unique internet-based database containing details of 31,000 organs, and includes 10,000 pictures and 260 sound recordings.

Having been started in its present form in 1991 in Cambridge by Peter le Huray and Mike Sayers, the NPOR project has since been guided by the Council of the British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS), with data input and editing carried out by a small group of dedicated volunteers.

For the last seven years, funded by BIOS, Birmingham City University has carried out the day-to-day management of the NPOR. Alterations to staffing arrangements at the University mean that the NPOR can no longer be maintained there, so the RCO has stepped in to ensure the continuation of this unique database.

The RCO’s Director of Academic Development, Andrew McCrea, explained: “The NPOR is a remarkable and important resource, widely admired and heavily used.

“The service it offers is a perfect complement to the College’s existing scholarly and academic work, so it was important to us that it should continue to grow and develop.”

Dr Alan Thurlow, Chairman of BIOS, said: “This is an important new development in which our two organisations, each exclusively dedicated to the world of the organ, can work together and, I hope, provide a more continuously stable future for the NPOR.

“We are grateful to Birmingham City University for their greatly valued co-operation during the past seven years, but for the future, we have been impressed by the enthusiasm of the RCO to become involved with the scheme.

“We look forward to their input and to working with them on the further development and future direction of the NPOR.

The National Pipe Organ Register can be found at www.npor.org.uk. From 1st July the new NPOR Manager will be the RCO’s Administrator, Andrew Macintosh, contactable for NPOR matters via npor@bios.org.uk