Bishop to bless newly-rebuilt organ

Norwich Cathedral’s newly-rebuilt organ is to be blessed by the Bishop of Norwich at a special service this weekend to celebrate the conclusion of a once-in-a-lifetime project to preserve the historic instrument for future generations.

The blessing will take place from the organ loft during Evensong on Sunday 26 November after organ experts Harrison and Harrison – who completed the £1.8m project – symbolically give the Cathedral back the keys to the organ which is one of the biggest of its kind in the country.

All are very welcome to attend the service at 3.30pm on Sunday 26 November or watch the live stream on the Norwich Cathedral Services YouTube Channel.

Meanwhile on Saturday night the last of a trio of Organ Reborn! concerts will see internationally-renowned concert organist Thomas Trotter play music by Bach, Guilmant, Willan, Dove, Karg-Elert and Mendelssohn to a 1,000-strong audience throughout the Cathedral.

Earlier in the month, the Organ Reborn! concert series had started on Saturday 11 November with Norwich Cathedral Chamber Choir, the Cathedral’s organist David Dunnett and Onyx Brass performing Rutter’s Gloria and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

On Thursday 16 November, the music of English composer Herbert Howells took centre stage in a concert by the BBC Singers, with the Cathedral’s Master of Music Ashley Grote playing the organ and Nicholas Chalmers and Ed Balls conducting.

The festivities throughout November have marked the culmination of a huge project which, from its initial planning and fundraising stages, has been more than a decade in the making.

The organ is one of the biggest of its kind in the country and the extensive rebuild project was the instrument’s first complete overhaul since it was rebuilt in 1942, following a fire which partially destroyed the instrument in April 1938.

The practical work started back in May 2022 when scaffolding was put up to enable most of the organ’s several thousand pipes to be removed and taken to organ specialists Harrison and Harrison’s base in Durham for further work.

Meanwhile gilders Robert Woodland and Debra Miller set about re-gilding the show pipes, crown and star that decorate the organ’s exterior.

Most of the organ’s working pipes were returned to the Cathedral in early 2023 before each and every one of the 5,767 pipes was ‘voiced’ – or tuned – by Harrison and Harrison in situ between May and July this year. The vast number of pipes range in size from about the length of a pencil to an incredible 32ft (almost 10 metres).