The Youngest Organ Player in the World
- Mike Hampshire
- Aug 8
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 3
National news was made in 1913 when St Anne’s Cathedral, Leeds, made an organist appointment that “created something of a sensation in the musical world”.
Those words were written by the Leeds Mercury on Monday 13th October, 1913. The Mercury, whose journalists were fans of eye-catching headlines, ran a piece under a triple headline “THE BOY ORGANIST, INTERESTING STORY OF HIS CAREER, REMARKABLE GENIUS”.
‘Career’ is itself an interesting word to use, when it is revealed new organist Harry Alban Chambers is just 11 years old! Not shying away from heaping pressure on the boy, the Mercury continued to explain that the previous, now deceased organist, Mr. Grimshaw, had once declared him the “young Mozart”.
Reported in the press across the country, including Newcastle and Dundee, even the national press took interest with the Daily Express printing a feature image of Chambers.
The late Mr. Grimshaw was taken with the boy’s talents after he was able to play perfectly Chopin’s Death March, having only heard it once. From then on, Grimshaw encouraged Chambers to play during services, even at a time when his “legs could barely reach the pedals”.
What did the young lad have to say for himself at the time? One Yorkshire Evening Post reporter commented to him “you play the organ when most boys are playing marbles”, to which the young Mozart remarked “Oh, I can play the marbles, but I love playing the organ at the cathedral”
Chambers remained in post at St Anne’s Cathedral until 1931 when, at the ripe old age of 29, he relocated to London. Continuing to play at churches there, he also turned his hand as a cinema organist too.
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