Protected: Saving Capel Rhondda, the birthplace of Cwm Rhondda
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Interesting Organs - Church Organs, Pipe Organs, Digital Organs and more
Italian wanderings: Churches, organs, and a touch of golf
About a year ago, an old university colleague proposed a golf trip to Italy, which I immediately signed up to. It was the perfect reunion excuse for a group of Oxford golfing oldies to get together and enjoy time together. Friends who I had not seen for almost 50 years came in from the USA…
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Paul Kirner’s Music Palace
I recently was back in Wales to join a group of organists to celebrate the opening of Aspire Organs new showroom in Pyle, a small town close to Port Talbot. Tony had carefully refurbished the space to provide a very comfortable and spacious presentation of both new and used instruments, together with a substantial external…
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Interesting Organ Feature at St. Mary’s RC Church, Willenhall
A few weeks back, we were asked to visit St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Willenhall who were looking to replace their Victorian pipe organ with a digital instrument. The decision to consider a digital alternative was due to the prohibitive cost of bringing the original pipe organ back up to standard. A Historic Nicholson…
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Interesting organs I’ve got to know and play
When I first experienced an organ, I became utterly transfixed by it. Discovering that they sounded so different from location to location was a great surprise to me. I’ve been lucky to experience many organs during my time playing, with some being more influential than others. I will talk about some of the interesting instruments…
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An organ adventure in Luxembourg
Whilst in Luxembourg for our Alkan recording project with Dr Joseph Nolan, we were lucky enough to get a day off to explore the organs around Luxembourg City. As Eglise Saint-Martin was naturally busy on the Sunday we took the opportunity to visit nearby Luxembourg for lunch and do a little tourist activity. All public…
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Beautiful and Unusual Organ at Christ Church, Northampton
My day started off badly when the phone rang on the way to work. Our service manager Peter was on the other end to tell me his van had broken down. We were due at Christ Church Northampton later that day to complete the installation of an Envoy 350-FV and his van contained the plinth…
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Southwark Cathedral Pipe Organ
Just before the pandemic Stephen Smith suggested an evening lock in to enjoy the pipe organ at Southwark Cathedral. Three years later we finally got a date in the diary. On a lovely sunny Monday in May, Richard Goodall and I took the train into Marylebone to attend evensong before the doors were closed so…
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Southwell Minster Organ – Repairing the Digital 32 ft Double Open Wood
I have been aware for many years that the Copeman Hart 32 ft addition to the nave pipe organ at Southwell Minster was in need of repair as the cones had deteriorated badly over time (as you can see from pictures below). Only held together by gaffer tape they still functioned but the tape added…
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Returning via Arezzo Cathedral
Earlier this year I wrote about my first visit to Viscount HQ in almost 18 months. I left Mondaino and Viscount behind early in the morning after a brief farewell with the staff. About mid way back from the Viscount factory visit in Mondaino and after a brief stop at Sansepolcro I broke for lunch…
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A Visit to Sansepolcro and Three Churches
Earlier I wrote about my first visit to Viscount HQ in almost 18 months. I left Mondaino and Viscount behind early in the morning after a brief farewell with the staff. After a few miles I left Emilia Romana behind and was back in Tuscany on the winding hill route toward the town of Sansepolcro….
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Organs of Westminster Cathedral – The Grand Organ
The Grand Organ at Westminster Cathedral was built by Henry Willis III. Willis and Hill vied for position as England finest organ builders but Willis probably has the reputation for building more exciting pipe organs, with especially fine reed stops. The first scheme for a new organ was actually proposed by T C Lewis in…
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Organs of Westminster Cathedral – The Apse Organ
I am sure a question that none of us can resist putting to any accomplished professional organist we might meet is – ‘which organ does he or she consider to be the best they have ever played’? We all have genuine curiosity on that topic, one which of course is in reality impossible to split…
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Visit to King’s College and the Chapel Pipe Organ
Recently I had the good fortune of attending evensong in the Kings College Chapel (for the second time). The first was some 15 years or so ago when David Briggs had very kindly arranged for me to have a play of the instrument after the service and then join him and Sir Stephen Cleobury for…
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Singapore Sojourn (Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay) pt.2
Continued from Singapore Sojourn part 1. During my time in Singapore last summer I was lucky enough to play the largest pipe organ in the island-nation. Opened in 2002, “Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay” is a premier arts complex in a prime location on the north side of Singapore city’s Marina Bay. The architecture…
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Singapore Sojourn – Pipe Organs of Singapore
International travel has not been a frequent feature of my life but, earlier this year, I was able to join my wife for 11 days in Singapore where she was working as an examiner for the ABRSM. It was my first visit to this island republic of around 5.6 million people and, I suppose, my…
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The organ at St. Stephen’s Church Launceston – An interesting find!
For me and for most other organists, a particularly pleasing aspect of Advent and Christmas is that we get to play for a good number of carol services which means playing instruments never experienced before. One such event for me was a recent concert at St. Stephen’s Church Launceston in Cornwall where I was accompanying…
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Woodstock Organ at Fotheringhay Church – A walk down memory lane
Recently I found myself travelling to Peterborough to meet a potential client. Having time on my hands I decided to revisit nearby Fotheringhay Church where almost 20 years ago now I used to meet James Parsons for a monthly lesson. This was on the wonderful Vincent Woodstock organ that resides there. These trips were really…
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Welsh Church Organ Pilgrimage: Part Three
As described in part two of our welsh organ adventure we had started the day at St Peter’s Church in Pentre. This was followed by a detour to St George’s Cwm Parc where the installed Viscount Organ had some external speakers added. By midday we were back in the car and heading towards Brecon for…
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Welsh Church Organ Pilgrimage: Part Two
Our short drive from St German’s Church (see part one of our welsh organ pilgrimage) took us to Llandaff Cathedral. Third stop on Organ trip – Llandaff Cathedral Llandaff Cathedral now has a 4 manual organ built by Nicholson of Worcester. Substantially completed in 2010 the final solo organ stops were added in 2013. See…
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Welsh Church Organ Pilgrimage: Part One
Those of you who have kindly read many of my blogs will know that I grew up in Wales moving away to work in London at 21, well before my now obsessive interest in the organ took hold. And so perhaps it is not altogether surprising that the number of Welsh pipe organs I have…
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Pipe Organs and Processors
This is a post written by Richard Lowe who is an Organ Consultant and Organist . He had a very exciting and interesting story to share from Christ Church West Didsbury where he works as Director of Music. So we’ve asked him to write this post for us. Christ Church West Didsbury is rather unusual amongst…
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An old friend revisited – Klais Organ at St Lawrence Jewry
Back in the mid 2000’s before the financial crisis turned the world on its head I used to enjoy a monthly trip into London for lessons with Catherine Ennis at her wonderful church in the heart of the City of London. It was a most enjoyable ‘day off’ and a visit that I always looked…
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Visit to Llandaff Cathedral Pipe Organ
I do not expect that many of us will have a clear memory of the first organ we ever heard, or perhaps even played. I can be fairly certain that for me it will have been the Llandaff Cathedral instrument sometime in 1960, as from the age of 5 I was a pupil at the…
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