Organ concert,
THIS Sunday, 3pm
Town Hall.
Be There.

Come and see our range of goodies at our sales table this Sunday.

Neander - I know you know you know it.

A gentle (bash, thump, wallop) reminder...

1. Ready, set, go!
Just a brief reminder not to miss the opening concert in our 2008 Organ Concert series at the Christchurch Town Hall THIS SUNDAY- which this year features New Zealand Town Hall organists. First up is the well-known Dr John Wells who will be playing a wide-ranging programme that includes one of his own popular works, the Fifth Suite. John will also be selling his CDs and sheet music of his compositions. The concert is at 3pm, on March 9th, and doors open to the public at 2.30pm.

It's your last chance to buy concession tickets for the year! And remember: these are the concerts where you can get up close and personal to watch the organist's hands and feet via the video screen. More information at the events page

2. Organ gifts on show
Talking of cds and so on, for the first time at the concert on Sunday I can show you some of the goodies that I have been rabbiting on about for years. There will be mugs, postcards, greeting cards, magnets, notelets, mousepads, 1 (only!) BBQ apron, and tote bags among the merchandise on sale. Proceeds go towards the upkeep of the www.nzorgan.com website although there are a couple of furry friends who would prefer it to go into gourmet fish cakes. Fat chance, felines! Anyway, do make sure you call at the sales table to see our range of organ and music merchandise. (And if you can't make it to the concert, visit our organ goodies website )

3. Neandering about
Chances are, you will know the tune Neander - written by Joachim Neander (funny that) - and generally sung to the words "Come ye faithful, raise the anthem ". But until David Bridgeman-Sutton revealed all in his March column of Musings and Amusings, I didn't know there was a connection between this hymn writer and Neanderthal Man. And climate change - as it invariably does - worms its way into the conversation too. Check out David's column here

4. Congratulations and thanks to those who were elected to the hard-working committee of the Friends of the Town Hall organ at the AGM on Thursday, February 26th. They are: Peter Barton (Chair), David Towns (Secretary) Delwyn Sell (Treasurer), Graham French, Ronice Henderson, Russell Kent, Martin Setchell, Lennox Willett.

5. Website to check out
I admit it: when I saw the topic heading for the Wikipedia-how-to page "How to read music", I snorted and it was only out of a bah-how-stupid sense of curiosity that I visited the page. A thousand apologies, Wiki-how-to people - you have assembled a concise, basic, clear and very practical single page explanation of how a newbie might get just a few clues on how to read the dots. It's a start anyway and if you have always wondered about the very peculiar language of music, this is as good a place to start as any!
How to read music

See you on Sunday!

Jenny

PS Have you tried the latest crossword competition? If not you'll find it here

contact me: newsletter@nzorgan.com