Auckland Town Hall Organ Free Concert Series – 2022 Season
Published: 15 Mar 2022
With two years of pandemic disruptions behind us, the Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust is optimistically planning a full programme for 2022. Even if restrictions mean an audience of only 100, concerts will happen and all will be live streamed.
The first concert on 22 May features Michael Stewart, Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral Wellington. Michael is also Music Director of the Tudor Consort and deputy Music Director of the National Youth Choir. A feature of his programme will be a celebration of César Franck, whose 200th birth anniversary is this year. His longest work, the Grande Pièce Symphonique, will give the Town Hall organ a real workout. For the rest, Michael has chosen a good mix of Bach, Dupré, Couperin and his own arrangement of a Radiohead hit!
The concert on 26 June is one postponed from last year. Nicholas Forbes will join the Auckland Youth Orchestra for Saint-Saëns’ ‘organ’ Symphony and Gigout’s Grand Choeur Dialogué arranged for brass and organ. There will also be an opera bracket featuring up and coming singers. This concert will go on tour to Whangarei Anglican church on 18 June, Warkworth Town Hall on 19 June, and Hamilton’s St Peter’s Cathedral on 25 June before ending up at the Auckland Town Hall.
Concert three on 25 September will highlight one of the great organ arts – improvisation, with Michael Bell. It will also be an occasion to showcase some promising young organists.
The year’s final concert on 13 November will take advantage of New Zealand’s borders reopening. Melbourne’s Thomas Heywood will return to Auckland. He was one of the first organists to play the new Klais organ, just a month after it was inaugurated in 2010. His inimitable style will be remembered by all who heard him then and at a NZOA congress in Palmerston north. With luck, by then, we might even be able to have a full house!
The Town Hall concerts are on Sundays at 2.00pm, except that the Youth Orchestra concert has a 2.30pm start.
All the Trust’s Auckland concerts are free, however there will be a charge for the out of Auckland Youth Orchestra concerts. Those details will be posted on the Youth Orchestra website: www.ayo.org.nz
And here’s an important change: All the concerts will now require an entry ticket, booked through Moshtix. Details will be posted on aucklandorgan.org.nz in due course.
