Cathedral’s organ takes centre stage

SACRED Heart Cathedral is hosting a series of pipe organ recitals for the first time, showing off its more than one-hundred-year-old instrument.

The Grand Organ Master Series launched in early April and includes monthly concerts until the end of the year split between the iconic cathedral and St Kilian’s Church on McCrae Street.

Internationally touring organist and Bendigo local Thomas Heywood will headline the June, August and November recitals and said he is thrilled to share the majestic instrument with the community.

“The pipe organs are the souls of these buildings. You come into a big empty space like this and then when you’ve got the glorious organ music filling it, it just takes you to another place,” he said.

Of the 2500 pipe organs in Australia and New Zealand, Heywood said about 100 of them were in venues like concert halls or town halls and the rest in churches, meaning most people only ever heard organists play hymns.

“But these concerts explore the organ as a concert instrument because you can play anything from Beethoven to Mozart,” he said

“The one stand out thing that people say is ‘I had no idea the pipe organ could do that’, because it’s basically a one person orchestra.

“We’re so fortunate here in Bendigo because this would really be, of those 2500 organs, in the top one per cent.”

The May concert, scheduled for this Sunday, will feature three of Heywood’s young students while the December recital will celebrate the St Killian’s church organ’s 150th birthday.

Director of music at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Paul Taylor, will lead the July and October performances and said the series would also include visiting organists from Melbourne and other parts of Victoria.

“We were keen to showcase the instrument as a way of highlighting the great repertoire of organ music that has been written but also orchestral transcriptions, so pieces that were originally written for orchestra but have been rewritten for the organ,” he said.

“Also, to capitalise on the presence of gifted organists like Tom here in Bendigo and as a way of drawing people to the cathedral to showcase the wonderful treasures that this building offers in terms of the architecture, art and music in context.”