A CHURCH organist died while practising on the piano for a Sunday morning service.

David Garrood, 61, from Sedgefield, County Durham, suffered a heart attack half an hour before he was due to play at the parish church of St James the Great, in Albert Hill, Darlington, on Sunday.

A doctor and nurse in the choir tried in vain to resuscitate him and he was taken by ambulance to Darlington Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Last night, church leaders paid tribute to "an exceptional musician" who died doing what he loved best.

Father Ian Grieves, of St James the Great, said churchgoers were stunned by what had happened.

He said: "It was such a shock to us all. He was doing what he loved right to the end. For him, it was a marvellous way to go, surrounded by his friends."

The Reverend Martin King, of St Edmund's Church, in Sedgefield, where Mr Garrood played for 25 years, described him as "a man of real gifts".

"He was a kindly, sensitive man as well as a fine musician," he said. "He was really an exceptional musician to have in a small town."

Mr Garrood stopped playing at St Edmund's in the early 1990s and had been organist and director of music at St James the Great for eight years.

A graduate of King's College, Durham City, he taught music at Durham School before becoming a music lecturer at Stockton and Billingham College, where he took early retirement.

Born in Cambridge, the son of church missionaries, he was a keen golfer and dog lover. He had no children but leaves a wife, Maire.

His funeral will be held at St Edmund's next Tuesday, at 10am.