Truro Cathedral Organ Scholar Awarded Prestigious FRCO Fellowship and All Available Prizes

Truro Cathedral is delighted to congratulate its 2025-26 organ scholar, Alfie Beston, on being awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), one of the highest and most prestigious qualifications available to organists and church musicians.

The FRCO is the Royal College of Organists' senior diploma and is recognised internationally as a benchmark of excellence in organ performance, musicianship and academic study. The demanding qualification assesses candidates across advanced practical and written examinations, including performance, keyboard skills, musical analysis, harmony, history and interpretation.

Alfie's success is made even more remarkable by the fact that he was awarded all the prizes available for the examination. He received the Limpus, Shinn and Durrant prizes for the highest overall marks in the practical examinations, the Harding and Durrant prizes for the highest overall marks in the written examinations, and the Samuel Baker Prize for the highest mark overall.

James Anderson-Besant, director of music at Truro Cathedral, said:

"We are extremely proud of Alfie, who has been awarded the prestigious FRCO diploma. Not only this, but he has also won all the available prizes, a fantastic achievement! This is testament to Alfie's talent as a musician, but also to a huge amount of hard work, which has been evident to all of us in Truro throughout the year.

Alfie is a superlative musician, not only as an organist but as a saxophonist, an all-round jazz musician and composer-arranger too. It has been striking to see how Alfie has grown as a musician, accompanist and conductor this year, and we are thrilled that in September he will take up the organ scholarship at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, along with a place to study music.

The educational impact of our organ scholarship is significant, and this then feeds into the national picture of cathedral music-making. We are extremely indebted to the Headley Trust, who have enabled us to continue supporting this unique opportunity in Cornwall."

Reflecting on his success, Alfie said:

"Passing the FRCO has been a target of mine for a few years now and it feels amazing to have finally completed it. It was a great opportunity to play new and interesting repertoire, learn about all sorts of music theory and history and, most importantly, give me another excuse to go and practise on the amazing Father Willis, even if it was keyboard skills!

I've felt extremely lucky over the last year to have had the support of James and Andrew, which was undoubtedly crucial in me passing the exams. Even though this is the final RCO organ examination, I have such a long way to go in developing as a cathedral musician, and I'm really looking forward to performing more repertoire and continuing to learn more about music during my time at Christ Church."

Those interested in learning more about organ scholarships at Truro Cathedral can contact director of music, James Anderson-Besant, at jab@trurocathedral.org.uk. Applications for the 2027-28 organ scholarship will be advertised in due course.