The most significant event of the past year was the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the installation of the Organ in the Town Hall. To mark this there were two organ concerts on the anniversary day, 15 May. In the morning there was a schools concert for primary and intermediate schools. This was given by Martin Setchell (Organ Curator) with the assistance of Constable Keith. It was unfortunate that the date clashed with some other school events at the time, which prevented some schools from participating; nevertheless some 900 children enjoyed a very entertaining and instructive event. A lot of work went into the circularising of schools and the arrangements for their attendance and thanks must go to all those members of your Committee who gave so freely of their time to make the event so successful.

The second event of the 10th Anniversary celebrations was a free lunchtime concert for the general public, also given by Martin Setchell. This was also well attended, the Town Hall being almost filled to capacity, and enjoyed by all. As it also marked Martin’s 10 years as Organ Curator, presentations were made to him on behalf of Vbase (the Town Hall management company) and the Friends of the Town Hall Organ Trust.

There were three concerts in the 2007 International Series. The first concert for the season was given on 18 March by Florian Pagitsch from Vienna. His enjoyable programme included Grand Choeur Dialogue and Toccata (Gigout) and a transcription of Weber’s Overture to Der Freischutz. About 200 attended.
The second concert on 8 July featured the German organist Andreas Meisner from Altenberg Cathedral. His programme featured transcriptions of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance No. 1, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and Smetana’s tone poem The Moldau. There were about 290 in the audience.
The final concert was once again presented by our Organ Curator Martin Setchell with guest artist Sarah Wilson (trumpet). The combination of organ and trumpet was particularly successful and a large audience of close to 400 thoroughly enjoyed the performance, judging from the feedback received.

During the year we have been trying to build up our membership and this currently stands at around 160 paid-up members. Members get a good discount on the tickets for the International series and receive a twice-yearly newsletter. The second of these, last November, recorded the fact that the Friends of the Christchurch Town Hall Organ Trust was registered in terms of the new Charities Act in September 2007, thus retaining our status as a charity, tax-free status, and by extrapolation the tax-deductible nature of donations to the Trust.

There is one significant change for the 2008 International Organ Series. Hitherto Vbase (the Town Hall management company) have run the concerts with our assistance, thereby taking responsibility for the financial outcome of the series, be it profit or loss. For a variety of reasons, this arrangement has now changed so that the Friends Trust will in future take all responsibility for the running of the concert series as a client of Vbase. As long as we are successful in getting assistance from our sponsors, who are listed on our publicity material and the concert programme, we should be able to survive, but good attendance at concerts will be needed.
I would like to express our appreciation of the work that Martin Setchell does to promote the Town Hall organ and the International series. I also acknowledge the work done by Delwyn Sell (Treasurer) and David Towns (Secretary) and the other Trustees in assisting in the running of the concerts and the Trust. The Trustees were successful in obtaining financial assistance towards the 2007 series from Christchurch City Council, Canterbury Community Trust, Perpetual Trustees (Farina Thompson Trust), Christchurch Star, Copthorne Central Hotel, John Rhind Funeral Directors and Pope Print and we extend our thanks to them. We also thank Vbase for their assistance during the past year. Thanks also to our Auditor, Christopher Stent. Finally, thanks to all members of the Friends of the Town Hall Organ Trust for their continued support.

Peter D Barton
Chairman