A team of specialists from Durham firm Harrison & Harrison Ltd installed 3,499 pipes – some newly constructed for the College, and others salvaged from an 1889 ‘Father’ Willis organ and honed to precision for their new home.
A five-day festival of concerts, recitals, and services was held in May to celebrate and bless the instrument, with the BBC in residence to capture much of the occasion. The festival opened with a service of Choral Evensong broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, whilst a further special service was recorded for transmission as an episode of Sunday Worship. Leading international organist Olivier Latry of Notre-Dame de Paris put the organ through its paces in a recital to a packed Chapel, and the Choir of St John’s College joined forces with Wayne Marshall OBE for a concert subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s In Concert. The concert also featured a new commission, ‘Swift Messengers’, from St John’s Fellow Tim Watts.
On Sunday 10 May, a special service of Choral Evensong marked the dedication and blessing of the organ; the Dean of Chapel Rev’d Canon Dr Victoria Johnson delivered a sermon developed in collaboration with Herbert Howells Organ Scholar Tingshuo Yang, exploring the origins of sound and its relationship with faith.
Following the festival, the Sunday pre-Evensong Organ Recital series resumed, with recitals by former organ scholars David Hill, Andrew Lumsden, Iain Farrington, Jonathan Bielby, and George Herbert, as well as current Organ Scholars Tingshuo Yang and Pascal Bachmann, Director of Music Christopher Gray, and concert organist Margaret Phillips. Further recitals are already scheduled featuring Wayne Marshall in June, as well as acclaimed Canadian organist Isabelle Demers in October, and American organist Nathan Laube in November.
