Review of 2024

I normally write this review much earlier in the year. The start of 2025 has been so busy it is not now until early March that I have found the time to put pen to paper and reflect on the major events of the previous year.

Launch of Physis+ and the first church installation using the new sound generation system

2024 finally saw the post pandemic recovery of our church customer market which had virtually disappeared by the end of 2020. The climb back has been gradual but I sense that we have finally returned to the levels of activity that preceded the pandemic.

2024 saw the launch of Physis +, the enhanced version of our software sound generation system first introduced in 2008. Our first large church customer using this system, St Mary’s Beverley was installed in February 2024. This was a very rewarding project working with lovely people in a spectacular church. I suspect many readers will be familiar with Beverley Minster but the town has this second amazing church of scale and very richly decorated. Take a walk through it on our Matterport scan of St Mary’s Beverley.

This was an interesting challenge due to the scale of the building. The pipe organ needed a complete rebuild with the cost just too much to contemplate at any near future time, so a much less expensive digital option was the logical way to keep choir and services well supported. As is often the case the rood screen formed an ideal speaker platform and a small walkway below the west window allowed us easily to create a west end copy of the instrument (minus all reeds) that could be added when needed to support those seated at the rear of the nave.

Saying goodbye to an old friend

March found me in Belfast saying a final goodbye to what had been my own home Regent Classic practice instrument. It had travelled far and wide, Selby Abbey for Video recordings and ‘Battles of the Organs’ Canterbury Cathedral for two years while the pipe organ was rebuilt, Purcell School for a fundraising ‘Organathon’  The Maltings Snape for a concert by Anna Lapwood and Winchester Cathedral again covering a pipe organ rebuild. Its new role is as a home practice instrument just outside Belfast where even though the space is small it does a magnificent job for a delighted customer.

Of course this means I am now building its replacement, but more of that later in 2025!

Our next exciting commission was for Christ Church Cathedral just a few miles away in Oxford. Some years ago now a small pipe organ was installed on the north side of the choir stalls to facilitate accompaniment, the west end Rieger being too distant to make this task easy.

With the Cathedral planning for a brand new and larger east end instrument, the small instrument had to be removed to allow for engineering investigations to determine the floors ability to support the weight. This also has to be preceded by archaeological work so it will be many years before a new pipe organ arrives and a temporary solution was needed. Once the pipe organ arrives our instrument will be moved out and provide much needed additional practice facilities as the visitor numbers in the Cathedral significantly restrict the times the Rieger is available for student use.

Growing the Viscount and Regent Classic team

With my 70^th birthday looming into sight my mind was inevitably focussed on succession planning. You may think I am a hard act to follow but I am pleased that a much younger and better organist joined the team last summer. Cassian had been organ scholar at Hereford Cathedral, later working at Harrison & Harrison in Durham before deciding a move to the digital organ world was on his life journey. Cassian was involved in console building so his skill set will greatly assist the building of our Regent Classic instruments in conjunction with Renatus of Devon.

One of the first jobs Cassian was involved with was the rebuild of an ancient Makin in the highly decorated Catholic church of St Mary’s in the center of Manchester. This 3 manual instrument was enhanced with the addition of several extra stops and octave couplers. For the time being it plays through the old Makin speaker cabinets. A new and larger audio system will be installed in a year or two’s time when the funds are available, and the required scaffolding can also be used to install a new lighting system.

A magnificent organ console gives inspiration

Later in the year saw me at another Christ Church, this time in Northampton where we were installing a 3 manual Envoy 350-FV. I was only visiting due to a van breakdown. To keep on schedule for the installation the engineers took my car while I went off and hired a van following up with the instrument plinth later in the morning.

Cross that my day had been disrupted, the irritation happily quickly evaporated when I saw the magnificent but silent pipe organ in the church. Built for the private residence of a wealthy Northampton shoemaker’s ballroom, it was gifted to the church in the 1960’s. The case is impressive, but the console is just magnificent and has given me some ideas for the next Regent Classic! The rear of the console is a work of veneer artistry and the doors, also beautifully veneered,  roll sideways along the sides of the console and behind the jambs. I have never seen that before. You can see more console detail in the blog link above.

Towards the end of the year I was back in my native Wales for the opening recital of an Envoy 35-F installed earlier in the year in Llandaff Cathedral by our partner retailer Aspire Classical Organs. The Lady Chapel at the extreme east end of the building behind the high altar is a lovely space used for small services and weddings. A small pipe chamber organ had served the space for many years but was not powerful enough for many of the services now held there, so a difficult decision was made to go digital.

Younger organists leading the charge

Enough talk of churches as the bulk of our customers are for home practice. We see a huge variety of musicians ranging from children as young as 8 to the occasional person at 80. Amateurs as well as professionals.

Just occasionally we meet musicians of extraordinary talent that stand out and are destined to make their mark in the years ahead. Bicester customer visits are now more often in the hands of my colleague Richard Goodall as I have also assumed the bookkeeping duties since our accountant retired.

One day in Autumn I could not help but pay close attention to the playing of Phoebe Burgess (as I later found out) who was visiting with her parents to explore 3 manual instruments. Phoebe who is York based, had been loaned a Viscount instrument by the Royal Northern School of Music. The quality of her playing for such a young person was truly exceptional and after a little thought it was clear we should assist her climb the music ladder ahead.

She needed a split console to take to an upstairs room so this did not arrive until early January 2025. We are delighted that she now has the instrument to stretch her musical repertoire which she frequently shares with us on Youtube and Instagram.

Carol Williams is back in Great Britain

Just before Christmas the Internationally Acclaimed organist Carol Williams returned from many years in the USA to a new home coincidentally near Beverley in Yorkshire. Carol has done many YouTube videos of Viscount instruments in the USA and now has an Ensign 51-FV in her splendid home music room.

A fellow Welsh person we look forward to helping Carol back into the UK organ world.

Christmas Carol Service almost ruined by mice

The end of the year found me wearing my service engineers’ hat at a small redundant church in the village of Plumpton about 8 miles from my home. The church is owned by a village trust who hold just 4 services a year. We had supplied a preowned Chorum 40 S some weeks earlier to replace a very old Allen organ.

The organ had fallen silent quickly after installation and when I visited to explore the problems I was confronted by a family of mice resident inside the console. A small head popped out from the speaker enclosure! Sadly the family had near destroyed the instrument. Many cables were chewed through and the spares I had with me were far from enough to effect the repair. On the return visit I was armed with all that was needed including a fine wire mesh to block all possible rodent entry points.

The organ was fixed just in time for me to play for the Christmas Carol service. My reward two very fine bottles of claret.

And so the year drew to its close, a few services to play for and possibly the busiest start to a New Year of any we have ever had lay ahead. But for what that entailed you will need to wait for my review of 2025 or watch out for the stories as they emerge in the months ahead.