David Drinkell R.I.P.

Yesterday was a day of mixed feelings. Earlier I had bought myself a digital organ so I can practice at home so I was upbeat. When I arrived home and turned on my computer it was not long before I saw that David Drinkell has died: then I was downbeat. With social media this news gets around fast but folk are able to send condolences quickly and share their sorrow.

I first met David when I went for Organ Scholarship auditions at Bristol University in 1977: he was in the choir I had to rehearse in a short anthem. They had inserted various wrong notes for candidates to spot. I think he thought this such fun that he almost gave the game away; he was clearly pleased and encouraging when I managed to spot his wrong bass note.

Later, when my sister got married in Peterborough Cathedral in 1978, David came up and improvised before the service whilst I was in the Song School going over the anthem with the choir and Christopher Gower. (At that time the Great manual had a 32' stop which, of course, David explored.)

At university David was known for his improvisation skills as well as his love of Vaughan Williams but he was a really jovial character. His knowledge of organs in the UK was second to none - it was as if he had played them all.

When I toyed with a small desktop music publishing company David produced a few gems for me to add to the catalogue and the photo above used to be on the website along with his biography. Back in 2010 this was what he wrote about himself.

David Drinkell was born in Colchester, Essex, England in 1955 and was organist of local churches from the age of twelve. He studied at the universities of Bristol and Cambridge and is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Associate of the Royal College of Music and one of the forty holders of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Diploma in Church Music.

In 1979 he moved to the Orkney Islands in the north of Scotland, where he was Master of the Music at St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, and in 1988 he was appointed Organist & Master of the Choristers at Belfast Cathedral.

David came to Newfoundland in February 2003 as Organist & Choir Director of the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  He has played or conducted throughout the British Isles as well as in Paris, Norway, New York and Ontario. He is the only organist to have played in all 31 cathedrals of the Church of Ireland and, in 1993, was one of eight Essex-born cathedral organists taking part in the Essex Man Organ Gala at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Shortly after arriving in St. John’s he commenced weekly lunchtime organ concerts at the Cathedral, which are now an established feature of the music life of the city. In 2007, he was invited to give concerts in the Cathedral of St-Pierre and to direct the Cathedral Singers of Ontario on a visit to Norwich Cathedral, followed by concerts in Belgium and Holland.

Although we had not been in touch regularly for a few years I knew that he had moved to Canada as he had sent me photos of his house. He was latterly Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral.

A kinder more generous and helpful chap one could not hope to meet. He knew the meaning of fun without being silly or unkind. Heaven is the richer and we are the poorer.