A concert will take place in March to celebrate Inverell’s Uniting Church pipe organ turning 90. The organ was installed in the then Methodist Church in March 1929.
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It was dedicated to Richard Wearne Nicholas, a Cornishman, who sponsored the organ. It was constructed by Whitehouse from Brisbane.
At the time, The Inverell Times reported a very joyful opening concert. The celebration will take place on Sunday, March 24 at 2pm.
Our guest organist will be Ian Brown of Ian D Brown and Associates, Pipe Organ builders, who has been the man who has lovingly serviced the organ for at over 40 years and he knows everything that it is capable of producing.
Other local organists will also perform. Over its life there have been fund raisers and legacies to keep the organ in good condition.
In the 1990s Robert Goode, at that time assistant organist at the Sydney Town Hall, who had grown up in Inverell, donated his time and talents in seven concerts over eight years to beautifully demonstrate the delights of the organ and raise funds for its maintenance.
Ralph Blackwell, a senior member of the local congregation, has been invaluable over 30 plus years with small adjustments and maintenance.
Some years prior to that Ralph and a team of men from the church helped Ian Brown dismantle the 780 organ pipes and clean everything – a massive task that involved emptying the church of pews and spreading out tables with pipes and fittings in ascending sizes.
Ten years ago funds were sought from present and past members of the congregation who responded generously and that allowed the organ to receive a replacement of the leather with a synthetic polypel in the pneumatic action puffers in every pipe and sometimes two to a pipe.
The organ is regularly serviced and can still produce an amazing variation in sounds and tones to take you into another world of music.
If you enjoy the subtleties, the pathos, the sweetness, the splendour of a pipe organ please come and join the celebration at The Uniting Church, River Street, Inverell at 2pm on Sunday afternoon of March 24.
The cost will be $10 donation for adults and free for children. Afternoon tea will be served.