The UK's leading Digital Church Organ specialist
I first set foot in the Sheldonian Theatre in the October of 1973 for my matriculation ceremony, when no doubt I had the pleasure of listening to the Harrison & Harrison pipe organ that was then still in use at the time. Back then, the ‘organ bug’ had not taken hold, so I very much…
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Sometimes, an inquiry for a new instrument can take several years from first contact to installation, and this was indeed the case at St. Michael’s Church in Farnsfield, where the first conversation began back in February 2019. Why replace the Binns? The church’s small 13-stop Binns organ, situated in the northeast transept had become increasingly…
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In February of this year, we received an email from the organist, Roger Tempest at South Aston United Reformed Church in Birmingham. Their 1980’s Wyvern drawstop organ had given up the ghost after around 40 years of good service. Roger had been looking on our website and was drawn to our new Ensign 42-FV as…
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Every once-in-a-while, we are invited to a church with a really interesting history, and so it was, when were invited to visit Magdalen Chapel in Holloway, Bath in July of this year. The church has a Viscount Prestige 80 which was installed around 25 years ago. It has given great service over that time but…
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Over the years, we have been lucky enough to supply various instruments to the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. In May of this year, Malcolm L’Amy, a well-known organist in Jersey, approached us with a new request: to find a suitable replacement instrument for the ageing Rodgers 785 organ at St. Peter’s Church. Which, after…
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One of the joys of my job working for Viscount is getting to visit communities and churches that you would otherwise never visit in day-to-day life. My visit to the Parish Church of St. Winwaloe near The Lizard peninsula in West Cornwall was no exception. Earlier in the year we were asked to provide a…
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Late in 2023 we were asked to visit Christ Church Cathedral and advise on options for an instrument to replace the Quire pipe organ that was on loan from Martin Renshaw. The main west end Rieger organ, a versatile instrument of great beauty which was commissioned in the 1970s, accompanied the Cathedral Choir which was…
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It was over two years ago that we agreed terms to supply the brand new Church of South India in Abu Dhabi, with a light oak Envoy 35-F that would play through 10 external speakers and a sub bass. The advice we gave on this setup was based on the construction drawings available for this…
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It’s probably about 4 or 5 years since Anna Lapwood came to our attention as a prolific user of social media to present her enjoyment of the organ in lots of guises and locations. Our first meeting with her occurred just before lockdown in 2020 when she purchased in the nick of time her first…
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One of the great joys of working in this business is the variety of people and locations we get to meet and visit. On that score it would be hard to beat St Mary’s Church in Beverley on both measures. Many will associate Beverley with the better known Minster but if you ever find yourself…
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We always love it when we get asked to provide an instrument for younger students who are just starting out on their musical journey. It’s great to see children taking up the organ and we love to do what we can to help and encourage. It was in July when we received an email from…
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We recently returned to Peterhouse Cambridge to move our Envoy 35-F instrument from the college chapel to its new home in the old Brewhouse where it becomes a permanent addition to practice resources for the College. For the short trip the organ had to be taken across busy Trumpington Street as the new home is…
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Every so often we get to work in exceptional buildings and extraordinary circumstances. The Jesuit Chapel at Stonyhurst College managed to combine both these attributes in a single commission. On entering the chapel at Stonyhurst College you would be forgiven for thinking it was the work of Augustus Pugin, but it is actually that of…
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All of us in the organ world are no doubt tired of the age old joke, Question: ‘Whats the difference between and organist and a terrorist’? Answer: ‘You can negotiate with a terrorist’ It no doubt stems from the probably correct recognition that if the congregation want to go in one direction and the organist…
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About 13 years ago now we supplied one of our very first 3 manual drawstop instruments to a customer in South London. Its often after a period of ownership of this length that a number of customers have thoughts of exploring a newer instrument. This may offer an improved sound platform or just as in…
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Keen readers of Viscount’s tales will know that the company jumped to attention on a Bank Holiday when the call came for an emergency hire organ at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel in Greenwich. A few months later, in September 2021, I was asked to voice a Regent 356 at the chapel. This new…
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It was on almost the eve of the first lockdown in March 2020 that Richard Goodall and I visited Lambeth Palace Chapel to explore the options for a digital organ there. Here 15 months later is the story of the installation in this most important historic London building, which is also the residence of the…
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The musical world is slowly waking up and it was lovely on a very sunny Friday to travel to Cambridge to voice and regulate a Viscount Organ in a very special location. Oxford and Cambridge must due to the large number of college chapels possibly have the greatest number of pipe organs to the square…
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Pipe organ projects are known to take many years in the planning as they are always complex and expensive, often involving structural alterations and extensive fundraising. By contrast digital instruments are usually agreed and installed in less than 12 months, and often as quickly as a few months when replacing an existing digital instrument. St…
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In August 2020 we delivered a new Chorum 40 organ to Prendiville Catholic College. The organ was shipped from the UK to our dealer in Perth, Western Australia for final delivery to the school. We are of course hoping this will inspire students at the school to take up this magnificent instrument and give them…
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In 2019 we were invited to quote for the organ that would be required after the complete rebuilding of the Methodist Church in Driffield East Yorkshire. It’s not often in a career that one has the opportunity of working with a brand new church building. It is therefore quite remarkable that this organ installation followed…
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It is always nice to hear from from our church organ customers on occasions. A few weeks ago I received a lovely message from John Hay from St Mark’s Church in Barnet Vale, where we had installed a Viscount Envoy 33-DFV in March 2019. The email also helped me resolve a little mystery! I had…
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Now that Covid-19 lockdown is beginning to ease we have been able to undertake some installations which had been postponed. It is great news for the churches, as they are now able to resume some services and revitalise their music with brand new instruments. Last month we also wrote about how we resumed our organ…
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I think its fair to say that St. Mary & St. John The Divine, Balham has had more than its fair share of bad luck in recent times. History of St Mary and St John The Divine Founded around 1805 by dozen wealthy residents of Balham including William Wilberforce, they came together to build a…
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