20 March 2026
On Wednesday 18 March, student organists and pianists in Years 7 to Lower Sixth spent a wonderful day visiting several colleges at the University of Cambridge, where they enjoyed a session with the Director of Music at St John’s, met organ scholars, including Woldingham alumna Isabel Lee, played college organs and attended evensong.
Lower Sixth Form musician Kiara and organ teacher Mr Dean, who organised the visit, tell us more.
Kiara, Lower Sixth
Our early morning arrival in Cambridge meant we had time to go punting on the river, from where we had good views of the historical buildings dotted along the bank, the sunny weather making the town seem extra beautiful.
We then headed to St John’s College, where Director of Music Mr Christopher Grey gave us a tour of the grand chapel and played us a few pieces on the college’s newly refurbished organ. After this, we visited Gonville & Caius College, St Catharine’s College and Peterhouse College, meeting with Caius’ Director of Music Mr Matthew Martin, Woldingham alumna and organ scholar Isabel Lee, and the organ scholars of Peterhouse College. We were lucky enough to get to play each college’s pipe organ and received lots of kind advice from Isabel, who explained the day to day life of a university organ scholar, which includes accompanying services, working with choirs and, of course, studying at Cambridge. Our final visit of the day was to King’s College, where we attended Evensong. The talented choir and choristers rendered us absolutely amazed.
This trip was extremely inspiring, and we all felt very lucky to have the chance to play such fine instruments in such esteemed faculties of music.
Mr Edward Dean, Visiting Music Teacher
Over the past couple of years, it has been customary for organists at Woldingham to make an annual trip off-site in order to inspire and contextualise their in-school organ studies. This year's outing to Cambridge enabled organ students to showcase their hard work to peers in an inspiring and a positive environment. We also invited some of our most promising pianists to see what learning this related instrument might open up for them in terms of their future studies.
As the students continue their studies at Woldingham School (both musical and academic), I hope they will remember the colleges we were so fortunate to visit and the warm welcome from the many female organ scholars we met. There is no limit to what Woldingham students can accomplish and I look forward to supporting our organists in attaining whatever they would like to achieve in the months and years ahead.
I extend my heartfelt thanks to the many Directors of Music and Organ Scholars at Cambridge who made this visit possible, as well as Woldingham's music and administrative staff who worked so hard to make this trip such a success.