OrganFax

Harry Stoneham is making a rare concert appearance on Thursday 12th April at Wessex Organ World Society in Poole. Harry is one of the few true professional celebrity organists outside the Organ and Keyboard scene (one of his Claims to fame is that he composed the theme tune to "Parkinson" and performed live in the "house band" on the show for many years) and this concert should certainly not be missed.

Harry has released many albums (running easily into double figures) since 1967.

The instrument for the concert will be provided by the team from Swift Music. More information on start times/prices can be found on WOW's website.

Two new websites of interest have recently been launched. First, there's the brand new site for Abergele Organ Society and Rod Pooley has also launched a great new site.

Just goes to show, the Organ and Keyboard society on the web is going strong!

Take a look at the sites...
AbergeleOrganSociety.co.uk, RodPooley.com

With over 2000 actual listeners last month, we are please to say that this month's edition of Alan Ashton's popular monthly OrganTrax radio show is online! You can access it through the media section or go direct to www.organfax.co.uk/organtrax.

April 1st brings about another month for OrganFax, and again, record numbers of hits and visitors to the site - 966,282 hits to be exact! It's also nice to see that so many of you are enjoying Alan Ashton's monthly OrganTrax radio production in the media section.

Once again, do not forget that if you would like to see any of the news articles from last month (including news from the exciting new Mill Rythe event, OrganTrax in the media, and many other interesting postings), they are all available in the archive on the bottom right of this page.

A welcome new venue has appeared on the organ concert scene in the form of Belton Park Pavilion in the village of Belton, North Lincolnshire.

Belton is situated between Doncaster and Scunthorpe on the A161 and the recently built and well appointed pavilion, (situated on Belton Playing Field) is a focal point for entertainment and dancing in the area. Concert promoters, the Beltonaires, plan to hold Sunday afternoon organ concerts with 2-30 pm.start on a monthly basis. The opening, and much enjoyed, concert featured Andrew Nix. This will be followed shortly by a concert featuring Brett Wales on Sunday, April 15th.

Admission is £5.00 - pay on the door - or tickets may be ordered in advance at a reduced price of £4.00 by phoning Joan Biddle on 01427 872635.

We have just received the exciting news from T and A Events that the Big Band appearing at their Mill Rythe organ, keyboard and big band event will be none other than the Nick Ross Orchestra!

The Nick Ross Orchestra is renowned for presenting the classic big band sound of the 1940s - the sounds of the Glenn Miller Era. Tony and Andrew are confident that they will provide a perfect blend of music to match the star studded line-up already announced, including Tony Stace, Andrew Nix. The Harry Stoneham Trio, Chris Powell, Brett Wales, Nicholas Martin and many more.

More information can be found at www.TandAevents.co.uk and www.NickRossOrchestra.com

Some news from Alan Ashton...

18 year old Sarah Foley, one of the rising young stars of the organ world, has been invited to take part in the first German Organ Festival 'DAS TASTENFESTIVAL' organised by Mautner Medien and OKEY magazine.

Taking place at the Hotel Zweibrucker Hof, 58313 Herdecke from 20th - 23rd September, Sarah joins an International all star line-up which includes HECTOR OLIVERA, BARBARA DENNERLEIN, CLAUDIA HIRSCHFELD, GEORGE FLEURY, MARK WHALE, ROBERT BARTHA, CURT PRINA, MICHAEL FALKENSTEIN, HANS-DITER KARRAS and JOHN HONDORP. Already a popular artist at UK Festivals and on the concert circuit, this is indeed an exciting engagement for this talented and personable player.

Full details www.tasten-festival.de

You can find out more about Sarah by visiting her all new website at SarahFoley.co.uk

Responding to an earlier request for details on the Compton organ that used to be in the Theatre Royal cinema, Plymouth, in the Daily Mail of March 12th, OrganTrax producer Alan Ashton provided the answers to the correspondent. What came as a complete surprise was that at the end of Alan's answer, the Features Editor included a link to both Organfax and OrganTrax. This resulted in Alan being contacted by various Daily Mail readers who had never heard of the existence of the Organfax/Trax features! At the same time he was asked by these contacts to provide all kinds of extra information on organ world matters: everything from how to try and save the Compton Notterman organ in the Dreamland, Margate, to the whereabouts of an organ which used to be in a Cardiff cinema. Having logged on to the OrganTrax feature, several then went on to ask for special requests to be played - a new feature which puts OrganTrax at the forefront of Internet organ music programmes. Alan has one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of theatre and electronic organ music in this Country, and is therefore almost certain to be able to fulfil your favourite request. To see how to do this, take a look at the current OrganTrax Programme content page. Incidentally, does anyone know what happened to the organ in the Capitol Cinema, Cardiff?

On june 11th 2007 , 250 students plus teachers from Dorridge music schiool will be performing live on stage with music to suit all tastes . From abba to queen, music from the shows plus popular light classics. Leigh Perry who played the organ society scene for 15 years is celebrating her schools 21st anniversary by putting the annual concert on at the prestigious symphony hall in Birmingham. On stage will be 10 organs , 5 keyboards, 8 drum kits , a grand piano plus guitars. The event will feature ensemble performances plus soloists , also vocals and a sketch from Oliver the musical. The show is sponsored by Roland uk who will have an exhibition in the foyet from 10am in the morning. This should be a great nights entertainment for the whole family, and proves that the organ is not dead .Tickets are £8 £12 and £15 and are available now from symphony hall or D M School on 01564 772831 or Leigh Perry on 07909 904 039.

This March sees Wessex Organ World Society coming of age with the celebration concert on Thursday 15th March 2007. The first ever concert was held at Pelhams Club Kinson Bournemouth on 30th March 1989. This concert was arranged by Eric and his wife together with the late Maurice Porter. The first organist to play at this concert was the Welsh Wizard Byron Jones. Byron will return to play at this concert.

To follow this concert the first of the 19th year will be the one and only Harry Stoneham on April 12th. There are a limited number of tickets available for this concert. The EL90 for this concert will be supplied by Nick Swift of Swift Music Bristol.

For tickets and all details please contact Dave or Lin 01202 666040

T&A events are pleased to announce two forthcoming events.

Both are to be held at The Elmbank Hotel in historic York. Andrew and Tony recently held their first event here and it was a storming success.

The first of these two events will run from November 2nd to 5th 2007, three nights half board at £189 per person. Top artistes will include Tony Stace, Andrew Nix, Brett Wales, Pete Shaw and Alistair Kiernan.

The other event at this beautiful hotel will run from February 15th to 18th 2008, three nights half board at £189 per person. Top artistes will include Tony Stace, Andrew Nix, Dirkjan Ranzijn, David Thomas plus another to be confirmed.

Further details can be obtained by contacting T&A events as below.

Contact details:

Tony Stace
1 Willow View,
Catterick Village,
North Yorkshire,
DL10 7PD
Tel: +44(0)1748 811054.

Andrew Nix
55 Meadow Drive,
Thorpe Willoughby,
Selby,
North Yorkshire,
YO8 9PN
Tel: +44(0)1757 708509.

www.tandaevents.co.uk.

Music-lovers residing anywhere near Andover (in Hampshire) have a rare opportunity of hearing one of the world's top organists at St Mary's Church next Saturday, 17 March, when Dr Carol Williams, Civic Organist and Artistic Director of the Spreckels Organ Society in San Diego, will be performing a selection of light classical music plus 'The Londonderry Air' for St Patrick's Day!

The concert was initiated by Weyhill Electronic Organ Society who have organised the event in association with the Countess of Brecknock Hospice Trust. Carol is being sponsored by the Society and all proceeds are being donated to the Hospice.

Carol, who was born in the UK, spent five years at the Royal Academy of Music where she was awarded all the major prizes for organ performing and, during her studies, became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a Fellow of Trinity College London, plus an Associate of the Royal College of Music.

She now devotes all her time to concerts and included amongst the numerous UK venues at which she has previously performed are Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, King's College Cambridge, Queen's College Oxford and Blenheim Palace. She has performed throughout the USA and has also given concerts in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Holland, Germany and Singapore.

En route, Carol has been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in recognition of her contribution to music. A regular broadcaster in the UK and in America, she has been guest performer with a number of leading orchestras including the BBC Concert Orchestra and, more recently, with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra. Further detailed information can be obtained from Carol's website: www.melcot.com.

Carol will be making a brief visit to this country and Andover is privileged to be staging such a prestigious event. The concert commences at 7.30 p.m. and tickets, at £8.00, are available at the door.

It's that time of the month again... pop over to the OrganTrax pages to listen to this months edition.

Well, OrganFax 2.0 is coming close to becoming one month old. And, with the start of a new month what better time is there to report that we have had a record number of visits since the site's relaunch on the 10th February... we have had a total of 7536 UNIQUE visitors! That's 7536 individuals that have visited the site in the first 19 days!!

As you will have no doubt noticed, all of last month's news has been archived, but you can still check up on our past items by clicking on the links in the "News Archives" section on the bottom right.

Don't forget to check back regularly for all the up to date news from the Organ and Keyboard world. Not forgetting our new edition of OrganTrax Radio (due to be launched on the 7th March), new spotlight and also a couple of new articles.

We are pleased to bring you news of an exciting evening of entertainment. Sarah Foley is producing a variety show called Keyboard Kabaret and it promises to be a great event.

The show will be held at Coombeshead 300 seat theatre, Newton Abbot, Ashburton Road, Devon on the 21st March and includes music from Sarah and Ian House featuring the Roland Atelier, Yamaha EL700, Korg PA1x Pro and Tyros 2, vocalist: Alan Rawlings, Coombeshead Jazz Band and a performing arts group including singers and dancers. The evening will be compered by the well known personality and OrganFax contributor: Alan Ashton.

There will be refreshments and a raffle and tickets are available on the door for only £4.50 (£4 when booked in advance - and tickets for children under 12 are only £1). Doors open at 7.00pm for a 7.30 start.

To book tickets or for more information, call 01626 368084 - or email the FoleyTribe.