Birmingham City Organist

The organ in Birmingham Town Hall, where many of the free public organ recitals are given

The organ in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, where many of the free public organ recitals are given

Birmingham City Organist is an appointment made by the City of Birmingham. The purpose of the appointment is to have an organist for civic occasions and who will provide a series of free public organ recitals.

Birmingham Town Hall is the traditional home of the City Organist, and it was under one of the earliest City Organists, James Stimpson, that the popular weekly recitals began. So popular were the recitals that audiences of around 1,500 packed in every Monday evening in the 1840s.

The weekly recitals, now held on Monday at lunch time, have continued to the present day. With the re-opening of a renovated and rejuvenated Town Hall in October 2007 some concerts returned to their home in Town Hall, Birmingham with others performed at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on the Klais Orgelbau organ.^[1]

List of Birmingham City Organists

Thomas Munden 1834-1837
George Hollins 1837-1841
James Stimpson 1842-1886 (formerly organist of Carlisle Cathedral)
C W Perkins 1888-1923
George Dorrington Cunningham 1924-1949
Sir George Thalben-Ball 1949-1983
Thomas Trotter 1983-present day^[2]

References

↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
↑ "Thomas Trotter - Organ". Patrick Garvey Management. Retrieved 2008-06-07.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.