Organ and Music Outreach

Sunday 8th July 2012 was the "Last Chance to Hear" our Father Willis Organ before restoration.
Now all the pipes and mechanism are away in Durham being repaired and will return in February 2013.

The present organ was built by Henry ("Father") Willis in 1877-78, designed integrally with the architecture and
installed behind the screen so that the source of the sound is not visible but is diffused into the chapel. The organ
was inaugurated on 11 March 1878, four months after the Chapel itself was completed.

Union Chapel has a long-established musical tradition. It was at the forefront of choral singing in Victorian times, with a succession of distinguished organists and we hope to restore that tradition.

View more photos of the restoration work in progress on the Union Chapel facebook page.

The Friends have launched a fundraising appeal for the repair of the organ and for the Music Outreach Programme next year.
In 2013 we look forward to provision for this musical education programme.

We are delighted to have Sir David Lumsden and Anne Elise Smoot as Patrons of the Organ Restoration Project.
Read more about the Appeal here.

Donate to the Organ Appeal at:

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the organ restoration project a First Round grant of £345,700. 
Read our press release about this here.

Why not join the Friends of the Organ for £10 per annum? See further details of the Friends of Union Chapel Organ here.

An extract from the "The Making of the Victorian Organ" by Dr Nicholas Thistlethwaite, with details of the specification
and history of the organ, can be downloaded here, by kind permission of Cambridge University Press.

A link to the Harrison & Harrison Organ Builders website can be found here.

Registered Charity No. 288545

Date: 10/2012