Rieger Pipe Organ in the Town Hall, Christchurch, New Zealand
Annual organ curator's concert 2023 coming up!
Eventbrite bookings for Martin's June 5 2023 concert are now live here. Be sure to book now and make certain of your seat for this wonderful concert!
Personal greetings from me, Martin Setchell, your Town Hall organ curator, on behalf of the Friends of the Christchurch Town Hall Organ.
I wanted to let you know in good time that my annual organ curator’s concert this year will again take place in the Town Hall auditorium on Monday 5 June at 2pm. This is now the King's Birthday public holiday (fortunately I was in time to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's long reign on Queen’s birthday last year). This year’s programme is entitled ‘Sound the trumpet’. I welcome as my guest artist Tom Eves, principal trumpet with the CSO. Tom will play a suite of pieces from Handel's famous Water Music arranged for trumpet and organ, as well as a delightfully witty Trumpet Sonatina by Hans Hielscher. My solo organ items include Bach's great Fantasia in G major (the pièce d'orgue) BWV 572, a haunting Allegretto by Louis Vierne, and the Pastorale and blazing Final from Guilmant's Sonata Op.42 1 in D minor. I hope you will be able to join me for this annual celebration of our iconic Rieger pipe organ in concert. Best wishes, Martin Setchell |
Guest artist, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra principal trumpet, Thomas Eves
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Watch the Grand Re-Opening of the Christchurch Town Hall Organ, New Zealand
Presented by the Friends of the Christchurch Town Hall Organ Trust
Two concerts on Wednesday, March 6th, 2019 marked the re-opening of the Rieger pipe organ in the Town Hall auditorium. The video of the evening concert can be viewed from Shipleys audiovisual production website. (A slideshow begins the video, then live event starts about 2 minutes in) Live streaming is still available for both concerts from this link
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"Organs and Organists: Their Inside Stories"
This unique book is the ultimate gift for any musician - or non-musician! "An all-ages, and all-knowledges book" |
There is a great deal of new content and fresh material on nzorgan.com. Coming events and news of the Friends Trust will be publicised here. But we also aim to maintain this site with a compilation of its unique and historic photos, events, and everything else that we followed in the 13 years the Rieger organ was active in the Town Hall before the earthquakes and all that is happening since. As these pages were originally a footprint in time, the narrative text about the installation and opening events are just as they were recorded.