The year is now well under way. Amid all the upheaval and uncertainty of today’s world, the routine of life at grass roots level goes on as usual. The BIOS year opened in the customary way with the Bernard Edmonds Research Conference at Birmingham. It is always an interesting and informative occasion, comprising six half-hour slots in which individual contributors read papers on organ-related topics which they have recently researched or are in the process of researching. Each paper is supported by a well-prepared powerpoint presentation. The event is fully reported later in this issue, but I would like to single out for particular comment how good it was to have one contributor – Max Elliott – who is of student age. Max spoke about John Ward’s 1823 rebuild of the York Minster organ, described as ‘a notorious and well-documented monstrosity’…
