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Chris Powell has firmly established himself as one of the UK’s premier
‘entertainment organists’ as well as a truly international ambassador in
the field of electronic and theatre organ music. Born in Manchester in
1971, he emigrated to New Zealand with his parents when just 2 years old.
Returning to England at the age of 5, his education and formative years
while growing up in Lancashire saw him pursue his love of music with piano
and organ studies culminating in a string of engagements for both local
concerts and dances from the age of 14 onwards. By the time he was 18, he
had successfully auditioned to join the team of organists playing for
dancing at the Tower Ballroom Blackpool and began to be recognised for his
musical talents leading to a succession of invitations to perform at
electronic and pipe organ venues.
Following his experience at Blackpool, Chris
widened his talents to include work as a demonstrator for several
manufacturers including Farfisa, Orla and more recently Roland with whom
he his now associated on a freelance basis as a demonstrator and as such
tours with their state of the art AT-80SL Atelier instrument.
1994 saw as invitation to return to New
Zealand for a month long concert tour on pipes and electronics which lead
to an exciting invitation to spend all of 1996 as a Resident Organist at
the ‘Baycourt Theatre’ in Tauranga. This was a unique and exciting
experience in which, while accompanied by his then fiancée Marie Allsopp,
he undertook all manner of concerts, functions and dances while playing
the Theatre’s 10 rank Wurlitzer as well as accompanying the Operetta –
‘The Merry Widow’ on this much loved vintage instrument.
Since then, he has gone on to become one of
the most popular performers in the UK and intersperses his regular annual
diary of engagements in Britain with frequent overseas concert tours with
have included Holland, Australia and the US as well as NZ in recent years
Chris was also interviewed and filmed in action for a documentary on
cinema nostalgia which screened in NZ last winter. Future visits to the
Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia are already in the planning stage.
He has a catalogue of acclaimed recordings to
his credit on both pipes and electronics. Together with his wife, Marie,
the couple run a successful Promotions Company and manage his Fan Club –
The Chris Powell Appreciation Society.
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