Career Profile: Jonathon Scott

When I was very young my parents had a recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons which I listened to over and over again. I really wanted to play the violin like the soloist on the recording. There were also visiting musicians to my school and a number of children were allowed to play the violin. When I auditioned, however, I failed the clapping test and was told I wasn't musical. It took another four years of haranguing my parents before I was bought a piano, which I started playing at the age of ten. I took lessons from an old lady who lived nearby, who charged only fifty pence for an hour's tuition and she took me right through to about Grade 7. After that, I managed to get private lessons with John Wilson, who is Head of Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music. At the same time I also started playing the organ – this was because the church to which my school was attached had no organist. Since I was the only person around who could play a keyboard instrument, it fell upon me to provide the accompaniment for the hymns on a Sunday morning. After about six months' playing, I decided that I needed to brave the pedals and so bought CH Trevor's organ tutor; gradually, I started putting them into the hymns, and, after a while, thought it might be a good idea to take some organ lessons as well. I was put in touch with Audrey Robinson at the Albion Church in Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester, who was a formidable teacher – she taught me so much, especially about practising, but she was quite hard to please. That might not have worked for some, but it just spurred me on: if I wasn't good enough, then I would go away and work even harder. It paid off because, when I did produce the goods, her praise was a great reward!

I went to Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, but only as a sixth-former. Before that I was at a comprehensive school in Moston, where I learned the trombone and violin. There was a lot of music going on and I gained much experience playing the piano for assemblies and masses. Getting up in front of a crowd of comprehensive-school children and performing is quite character building, and I often paid for it in the schoolyard during break and lunchtimes! Chet's, however, was like a holiday – after five years of being mocked for both playing the piano and liking classical music, I was finally amongst a group of peers who had the same passions. I was joint principal-study piano and organ, studying with Heather Slade-Lipkin and Gordon Stewart, who is now the Borough Organist of Kirklees.

In my final year there, I got a scholarship to study piano at the Royal Northern, where I rekindled my relationship with John Wilson; by the time I reached my second year, I was also taking organ as a joint first-study instrument, tutored by Darius Battiwalla.

I have always been active taking part in competitions and no matter what the result, as long as they are approached in the right spirit, something can always be learned. The first organ competition I ever did was at the St Albans Organ Festival in 1999. I wasn't really expecting to get anywhere, but thought that as long as I played well, anything else was a bonus. Fortunately, I came fourth, despite only getting an hour and a half the week before to prepare my registrations on both instruments. During the competition week I had nowhere to practise – preparation was everything and that taught me a lot.

Last year, I gained second prize in the Royal College of Organists' Performer of the Year Competition 2000. This competition was on a much bigger scale than anything I had played in previously, culminating in a live performance on Radio 3 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. For the semi-final, Giles Swayne had been commissioned to write a piece for organ and countertenor, which was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to learn. Getting through to the concerto final was a thrill and I was allotted to play one of three concertos we had to prepare, Barber's Toccata Festiva. The panel announced the results for the final at 4 pm and, by 4.15, I was rehearsing with the orchestra! So I think it is important to be very well prepared for any such event. In the final, the organ decided to turn itself off in the middle of my concerto, which resulted in our having to re-start; this would have fazed a lot of people, but I think being so well prepared helped me keep my composure through this rather trying moment!