Experience some of the finest music written for organ, performed by internationally renowned organists on one of the world’s best concert hall instruments.
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Past Event6 Oct 2019
Town Hall Free Organ Concert Series
No longer available
Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall
Music
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Town Hall Organ and Auckland Live present
Town Hall Free Organ Concert Series
Erik Wm Suter | Sunday 6 Oct, 2pm
Erik Wm Suter is a musician of international acclaim. For nearly 10 years, he served as Organist at Washington National Cathedral. He’s performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada and in Asian and European countries. Mr. Suter has appeared with The Philadelphia Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra. His numerous recordings include 5 solo CDs. In this concert, he’ll play masterworks from the romantic period, as well as contemporary works that show off our Town Hall Organ. Mr. Suter is a greatly accomplished organist and this concert promises to be another magnificent performance of exciting music on our world-famous Town Hall Organ.
Read more about The Auckland Town Hall Organ
Hidden behind the beautiful 1911 facade is an array of thousands of pipes, dozens of bellows and a network of sophisticated wiring and technology. This organ has gained a reputation as one the world’s finest concert hall instruments: a reputation endorsed by many visiting international organists.
It was not always so. In 1970 the original instrument was replaced with a new organ of a different style. But it was soon discovered that it could not fill the hall with sound. In 2010 the ‘lost splendour’ returned with the Town Hall’s third organ – an instrument built to match its opulent surroundings.
Protected as a heritage item, the new organ contains some of the original 1911 pipes, which were repaired, re-voiced and reincorporated into the instrument as part of the 2010 refit. At the same time, two stops were specially designed to capture the spirit of two traditional Māori instruments – the pūkāea and the kōauau– and unique Māori decorations were added to the largest 12 pipes of each rank.
An internal viewers’ walkway runs inside the organ from where the carvings are just a few of the myriad of fascinating features of the instrument that are visible.
