About KC Magazine and Cavalcade Festivals

Keyboard Cavalcade (OKC) was first published by Roy Neal back in 1987, and was born out of his Caister keyboard and organ festivals (which started in 1985), with home enthusiasts asking for their own magazine especially designed for the needs of home players. It started in a newspaper A3 broadsheet style and over the years the magazine has evolved in line with reader feedback and requests to become the UK’s number one publication in the world of home organs, keyboards and digital pianos. Today it has a coated magazine style outer, with the inner pages printed on high quality non-coated paper, so the pages don’t reflect, making articles easier to read and music easier to play! Sadly Roy passed away in 1991, but his family continued to run and improve the magazine and festivals and to build upon the strong foundations Roy had created. Grant, Sue and Betty took the helm for the next 28 years but decided in 2019 to pass things forward to enthusiastic, bright new custodians! Keen to provide a safe and secure future for OKC, Cavalcade Productions Limited was born. The company is run by renowned international organist Michael Wooldridge, himself a regular contributor to KC for many, many years, and his wife Carole, who is both a trained classical soprano and also very successful IT Consultant, with many major projects to her credit for international corporate clients. They have been delighted to make further improvements to both the content and quality of the magazine, maintaining KC’s position as the UK’s number one magazine for home keybaord enthusiasts and receiving wonderful feedback from subscribers old and new. Meet the Team We are very happy to have a team of well-established professionals who contribute fascinating articles to OKC magazine and who helps us run our friendly festival events. The team is headed up by three key people: Michael Wooldridge is one of England’s top electronic and theatre organists, launching his career at the age of fifteen by winning the ATOS UK Young Theatre Organist of the Year Competition. He has regularly appeared on BBC Radio 2, including playing live on air to 5-million listeners on the Steve Wright In The Afternoon Show. In the music trade he has worked for Yamaha, Hammond, Wersi and Korg. He is Resident Organist on Europe’s largest Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ, at the East Sussex National near Uckfield, where he plays for many dances and concerts. Outside of the UK, Michael has played many concerts in Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Australia and, in bands, has worked in Ireland and Dubai. He spent time over the summers of 2017 and 2018 working as Principal Accompanist for the International Silent Film Festival held at Berlin's Babylon Cinema, and regularly plays classical organ, including sometimes playing for services at Arundel Cathedral. Michael has a passion for show music and has worked as Musical Director on countless theatre tours, Summer and Christmas Seasons and Pantomimes, plus lots of 'book' musicals, including such favourites as Annie, Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, Oliver, Return To The Forbidden Planet and The Wizard of Oz. For more information visit www.MichaelWooldridge.co.uk Lorraine Collier helps with the day to day administration for KC Magazine and for the Hemsby, Blackpool, Pakefield and Yamaha Festivals. Lorraine started having lessons on the organ after her parents heard her picking out tunes on a very tiny toy grand piano at the age of 5. They went on to help set up and run the North Wales Organ Society in the early 1970s. She's always had Yamaha at home, progressing from a very basic two keyboards and pedals through to the Tyros 5 arranger keyboard she now has. She played theatre organ on BBC radio when she was 13 and was musical director for pantomime when she was 17. For her working life, Lorraine spent 30 years in the Civil Service, taking early retirement in 2011, and since then has worked as freelance proof- reader for 2 years and helped out a little at local post offices. Whilst in the Civil Service, amongst many other roles, she was a conference organiser for the Chief Executive and board of Jobcentre Plus, and an Honours and Royal Garden Parties Secretary. Lorraine says, "I'm lucky to have made so many very good friends through music and I look forward to meeting many Cavalcadians at the various festivals in the future." We are thrilled to have Lorraine on our team and know you will all enjoy getting to know her. Don't forget to phone on a Monday or a Thursday morning between 10am and 12noon. Carole Wooldridge is a hugely talented soprano, who trained with the coach from the world renowned Glyndebourne Opera and, in fact, first met Michael when she was working as Repetiteur for a production of Oklahoma, for which Michael was providing the music. She is one of the country’s leading IT gurus, having contracted in for projects with many major organisations including NATO at the SHAPE Headquarters in Brussels and at bases throughout Europe, the Ministry of Defence, British Airways, BAE Systems, Drax Power (mainly at their HQ at Drax in Yorkshire, the UK’s largest power generating plant), Costa Coffee, Edwardian Hotels, Bentley Cars, acas, and Musgrave, Ireland’s largest grocery supplier, at their HQ in Cork and throughout Ireland. Michael does some behind the scenes work for their IT company, so the advent of Cavalcade Productions Limited sees a role reversal, with Carole's input to this company being mainly behind the scenes! Aaron Hawthorne has joined the team to work as our Social Media and Marketing Consultant. He is the ideal choice, as whilst we are making use of his extensive IT knowledge and skill, he is also a fabulous player. In 2017 he won the Senior UK Young Theatre Organist of the Year Competition, presented by the London & South of England Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society, and then went on to win the highly acclaimed International Young Theatre Organist Contest, held in Rochester, New York, USA. He’s now also taking a great interest in modern digital keyboard and pianos. He has played concerts and for silent film nights throughout the UK, as well as appearing in Holland and the USA. He plays in churches and cathedrals, and has musically directed a number of choirs.