This is an archive of news articles from January 2004. Current news articles can be found here and an archive index can be found here. Information in this archive may no longer be valid.

• Rome's largest mechanical action pipe organ is inaugurated
  Cardinal Paul Poupard has today inaugurated Rome's largest mechanical action organ in the church of Santa Galla. The organ was originally commissioned in 1967 by Professor Giuseppe Scarpat of Brescia, who had rescued its historical pipework from an unknown 19th century instrument. The Grand Orgue and Positivo follow Italian tradition, while the Recit and Bombarde are more Romantic in inspiration. By 1985, it became clear that the project needed new owners to complete it, and it was sold to Santa Galla. The Bombarde manual was completed in 1990, and the parish priest, Father Franco Amadori, has encouraged the parish to complete the instrument with the recent addition of the Recit Expressif and Pedal departments, making an instrument of four manuals, 80 stops and over 5000 pipes. Restoration and construction of the new case has been carried out by Bartholomy Formentelli, who has restored or built over 200 organs based on historical Brescian examples and also builds other historic keyboard instruments. More information with pictures, sound samples and a specification here (in Italian).
  
  

• Specification: St. Mary, Whissonsett
  Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Dulciana Principal Flute (stopped) Fifteenth Pedal pulldowns	8' (from tenor B) 8' 8' (from tenor B) 4' 4' (from tenor C) 2' (12 notes)

  Heritage Lottery grant for the 1850 Richard Nicholson organ of St. Mary, Whissonsett
  The unique GG compass chamber organ of this Norfolk parish is to be restored by Bower and Company after a grant of 23,400. Featured in issue 224 of The Organ, it was moved to the church from a Lancashire house in the 1890s. The attractive case is made entirely of dummies, as all ranks are enclosed in a swell box. The flute probably replaced a tenor C Hautboy at the time the organ was installed in the church. This is the only Richard Nicholson chamber organ to survive in playable, largely unaltered condition. One of its more interesting features is a piano style lid. Richard Nicholson worked in Rochdale, and not far away in West Yorkshire, John Laycock built a very similar organ for Cowling Hill Baptist Chapel in 1851 with a similar piano-style lid. No records can cast light on this coincidence!
  
  
• International music school in Leipzig
  The 4th Organ Seminar of the International Summer Music Academy Leipzig, presented by the Leipzig Music University and the Juilliard School, will take place from the 16th to 29th of July, 2004, and presents an unusual chance to experience some historical organs of Saxony and Thuringia. Teachers are Prof. Christoph Krummacher (Leipzig), Prof. Jon Laukvik (Stuttgart), and Martin Schmeding (Weimar/Dresden). Attractions include student concerts and excursions to celebrated organs. Further information is available at www.hmt-leipzig.de.
  
  
• Organists get New Year's honours
  Two British organists and choirmasters have been recognised with honours in the annual New Year's list. John Scott, who will be leaving St. Paul's Cathedral, London this year for New York (see the news article in the 2003 archive) will receive a CVO, and Christopher Robinson CVO, recently retired from St. John's College, Cambridge and previously of St. George's, Windsor, will receive a CBE for services to music.