Lunchtime Celebrity Organ Recitals at Selby Abbey

Wednesday, 31 May 2023 16:53

By Alexander Chadwick @thisisyo1

Now entering its 9th season, Selby Abbey’s summer season of Tuesday lunchtime organ recitals begins on Tuesday 13th June.

Organ was installed following the Abbey’s fire in 1906 and has attracted celebrity organists from around the world. It was made famous in the 1960s when celebrated Italian organist Fernando Germani made several recordings for HMV, which are still very much in demand.

This year Dr. Franz Hauk from Ingolstadt Minster in Germany and D’Arcy Trinkwon from Worth Abbey make welcome returns while, more locally, the Abbey’s own Director of Music, Oliver Waterer, previous holder of organist posts at Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal at St. James’ Palace and at St. David’s Cathedral, Wales, will play works by William Byrd, Max Reger and William Walton amongst others, on 18^th July. It is particularly fitting that the recital on 27^th June will be given by Geoffrey Coffin, formerly assistant organist to the late Dr.Francis Jackson at York Minster. Through his company, Principal Pipe Organs of York, Geoffrey was entrusted with the comprehensive restoration of the Hill organ at Selby Abbey, completed in 2016.

Encouraging the work of the Young Organ Scholars Trust, this year’s distinguished list of recitalists will include Luca Myers, Senior Organ Scholar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and formerly Organ Scholar under Robert Poyser at Beverley Minster. He has an impressive list of recent international recitals to his credit.

This year’s stellar line up of recitals will conclude on September 1^st with an evening extravaganza - the hugely popular and entertaining ‘Battle of the Organs’ when Selby Abbey’s traditional Hill pipe organ will do battle with Viscount Classical Organs’ digital instrument. A thunderous evening with John Scott Whiteley and Martin Baker rattling the rafters in Selby’s medieval Abbey.

The Tuesday lunchtime recitals run through to August 8^th, begin at 12.30pm and last about one hour. Admission is free although donations towards costs will be welcome.

For more information about events at Selby Abbey visit our website www.selbyabbey.org.uk or telephone 01757 703123

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