22nd February 2011 It's four years since Christchurch went into shock with the shaking of the ground, the roar of the earth as if in childbirth, the falling of masonry and tumbling of walls. We count our blessings every day that we were not among the 185 who died on February 22nd, 2011 when the earthquake struck; neither have we had to suffer huge physical pain and recovery. Others are still battling - and are likely to for some time - money, housing and job worries of a most basic nature. The worst we must cope with is uncertainty about the future of the Town Hall and the Rieger pipe organ, which is still inside, patiently waiting for normal life to resume. In the last four years, the 'new' normal has meant sitting underneath spitfire planes in the Airforce Museum for orchestral concerts, cancellation of so many usual concert series, having the number of pipe organs reduced from 77 in the region to 4 before they have begun to slowly claw their way back to life again, and a myriad of other annoying life changes. Taken one-by-one they are easy to cope with; but heaped together as they are, sometimes life becomes unbearably difficult to negotiate. But we have not suffered as those who did who were trapped but survived, often with horrible and debilitating injuries. We have lost only a venue, the heartbeat that is the town hall, and of course the use of the fine organ inside it which is the whole reason for the existence of this website.
All the friends of this organ - of which there are many around the globe - fervently hope the hall will be repaired and re-open so we can all hear the organ resound again, and in the century to come. We can only hope it doesn't take another four years. Or longer.
All the friends of this organ - of which there are many around the globe - fervently hope the hall will be repaired and re-open so we can all hear the organ resound again, and in the century to come. We can only hope it doesn't take another four years. Or longer.
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