Pipeline  Press  Newsletters

What we are telling those who are interested in organs, the rebuild of the Christchurch Town Hall, concerts, books, competitions, CDs, gifts for you to surprise your organ music loving friends ... almost anything that is to do with organ music and organists in our little part of the world!

Latest newsletter: October 14th, 2019

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

So much to celebrate! A hearty welcome back Gerhard Pohl (right) with Martin Setchell at the Rieger, 3 days before the February 22nd, 2011 earthquake which devastated Christchurch, and silenced the organ for eight years. Gerhard will be returning in January to complete the voicing and tuning job that was interrupted by the quake. 10-9-8- The countdown begins The final countdown to the grand re-opening of the Christchurch Town Hall and its iconic, enlarged Rieger pipe organ is now on! Martin Setchell reports that all is going well with the final stages of the rebuild, and subject to the usual compliance requirements (certificate of public use for the building etc) the complex will re-open in late February-early March next year, 2019. Read details of the new work on the organ to be done in the nzorgan.com Blog  Write this date in your diary now Martin will give the re-opening inaugural organ concerts, (lunchtime, with an early evening repeat), currently scheduled for Wednesday 27 February. It will be supported by the Friends of the Christchurch Town Hall Organ Trust, Vbase, and the City Council and is planned as a free event to celebrate the organ's re-opening. Further solo concerts in the Town Hall International Organ Series are scheduled for Sunday 9 June (Maurice Clerc, France) and Sunday 18 August (Ben Sheen, USA). It has been along wait, but in the end, surely worthwhile. To keep up to date with details of the opening events further concerts, and the new CD, please regularly visit the organ's website www.nzorgan.com Celebrating the year to come with gifts Latest spawn of our organ gift shop include socks, journals with a year calendar on the front, and a new calendar in vertical and horizontal format with all absolutely new photos of organs from around the world. These new calendars have enough pages for  up to 18 months if you wish to make them cover a longer period. So you can start from November for example and finish in 2020. It's entirely up to you. The calendars can be customised to suit your country too (choose your own holidays). I especially love the Guestbooks, and have made quite a range of different cover designs. The one shown here features an abstract image of organ pipes, with ornate swash lettering on the front. The back cover has a special organists' joke - hint: it has to do with ciphers! The book comes in an elegant presentation box and I was blown away when ours arrived - the quality is exceptional. So if you have visiting organists to your church or concert venue or even at home, do look at these. Perfect as gifts! Click on the images to go to the relevant categories. Celebration competition! The question is simple enough: how many months can you choose to have in the latest organ calendar from our organgifts shop? (Shown left) The prize will be this large vertical calendar which has the dates of New Zealand holidays, 18 months (finishing June 2020) and plenty of room for notes of your own as well as large numerals for the dates. The competition is open to anyone, anywhere. Enter the competition here  (Closing date November 10th, midnight New Zealand time. Celebrating now with a sale! We had to celebrate somehow so have started with discounts for the two most popular books on our website: "Organs and Organists: Their Inside Stories" and "Organ-isms: Anecdotes from the World of the King of Instruments". Now is the perfect time to get your copy or be organised early with your gifts for friends and family. Check them out and read the reviews from the links below: With big discounts in our celebration sale, now is the best time to buy your copies of "Organs and Organists: Their Inside Stories". Read the reviews and see inside the pages here "Organ-isms: Anecdotes from the World of the King of Instruments" is still popular for organists and non-organists alike. Get your sale copy here The death last month of Peter Barton, MNZM, chairman of our Friends of the Christchurch Town Hall Organ Trust, was a huge loss to the music scene of Christchurch at large. Peter's passion for the organ helped to drive the initial fund-raising for the Rieger, and post-earthquake he was instrumental in making numerous submissions to save the Christchurch Town Hall and the organ from demolition.  Although the music fraternity gathered to celebrate Peter's immense contribution to the music scene in Christchurch over 65 years, we will miss him enormously, and regret that he did not live to hear his beloved organ sounding forth again as he had hoped. From the Swellbox Only two snipplets today: Here is another place to satisfy your 24-hour cravings for organ music: contrebombarde.com I'll just post this here with the comment that any website with the title "Fat Cats and Art" is bound to have come from our 4-legged sub-editors. I disown any responsibility for posting it. There. Done.  Thank you for reading - please let me know if you are still getting 2 copies of this newsletter. One is more than enough for anyone... but don't forget the sale and the competition! Cheerful and celebrating noises from downunder in Christchurch, Jenny

Newsletter Archives

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

---