Summer festival celebrates Cathedral organ

Norwich Cathedral’s historic pipe organ is at the heart of the Cathedral’s musical life and this summer a special festival will be taking place to celebrate the magnificent instrument.

The Norwich Cathedral Summer Organ Festival kicks off with a five-day programme of events from 8 to 12 July followed by a series of evening concerts throughout summer 2026.

There is something for everyone to enjoy, ranging from A Night at the Movies with Odeon Leicester Square organist Donald MacKenzie, to a concert by Notre-Dame Cathedral’s titular organist Vincent Dubois, and a free Battle of the Organs musical extravaganza with Norwich Cathedral’s three organists, Ashley Grote, Graham Thorpe and Christopher Too.

The BBC Singers will be making a welcome return to Norwich Cathedral for a special performance recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and Norwich Cathedral Choir and Norwich Baroque will perform works by Handel and Bach in a concert entitled Baroque Masterpieces.

Ashley Grote, the Cathedral’s Master of Music, said: “Following the success of the Organ Reborn! festival in 2024, which celebrated the complete rebuilding of the Cathedral organ, we wanted to offer a similar celebration this summer.

“This year’s organ festival offers audiences the opportunity to hear the magnificent instrument in a variety of contexts.

“The festival will bring some of the world’s finest organists to Norwich, and with a silent movie, our Battle of the Organs, as well as concerts and recitals, there is something for everyone, with free tickets for under 18s.”

As always, all are welcome to attend daily worship at the Cathedral, and on the opening day of the festival, BBC Radio 3 will be broadcasting Choral Evensong live from Norwich Cathedral.

The Dean of Norwich, the Very Revd Dr Andrew Braddock, said: “This will be a brilliant festival showcasing the diversity of music the organ can offer with something for all ages.”

After the initial five days of musical celebration have drawn to a close, audiences can continue to enjoy a summer series of recitals on various Wednesday evenings throughout July, August and September.

Click the button below for the full details of all of the Norwich Cathedral Summer Organ Festival events.

THE HISTORY OF THE NORWICH CATHEDRAL ORGAN

An organ has been one of the musical centrepieces of Norwich Cathedral’s worship for centuries and the current organ is among the biggest in the country.

The organ has an incredible 5,767 pipes and they range in size from about the length of a pencil to 32ft (almost 10 metres).

There are references to an organ at Norwich Cathedral dating back to the 14th century. Today’s organ was originally built by the Norwich firm of Norman and Beard and first installed in 1899.

It was devastated by a fire that broke out during an Evensong in April 1938 but, despite the outbreak of the Second World War, a project to rebuild the organ was completed in the 1940s.

Eight decades on, the £1.8m Norwich Cathedral Organ Rebuild Project saw the magnificent instrument undergo a complete overhaul to enable people to continue enjoying its music for many generations to come.

The project saw most of the organ’s several thousand pipes removed and taken to organ specialists Harrison and Harrison’s base in Durham for further work.

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 2023.

A special series of Organ Reborn! concerts took place in November 2023 to celebrate the return of the organ.