Issue 496 – Festival-goers pull out all the stops for organ appeal

THE appeal for a new organ for Edington Priory Church has had a massive boost thanks to the Edington Festival, with around £40,000 raised from people attending the festival at the end of August.

Added to funds that have already been raised or pledged before the festival opened, the appeal is already over half-way to its target of £400,000. The Edington Organ Project – the Edington Music Festival Association’s fundraising appeal to provide a new organ for Edington Priory Church – was officially launched on the final Saturday of the eight-day Festival of Music within the Liturgy at the end of August.
Early indications are that, with the appeal being promoted throughout the week’s services, donations from people attending the festival are around £40,000, a heartening boost towards the target of £400,000, of which about half had been raised or pledged before the 2011 Festival opened.
The organ project’s patrons, Lady Barbara Calcutt, widow of one of the festival’s founders Sir David Calcutt, and international organist Simon Preston CBE, spoke briefly to festival-goers at the launch. Both stressed what an important role the new organ will play in the Priory Church throughout the year, and what an integral role it plays during the Festival itself, even if at the moment the choristers sometimes find the current instrument’s errant pitch something of a challenge!
Mark Venning, chief executive of Harrison and Harrison, the country’s leading firm of organ builders from whom the new organ has been commissioned, gave an insight into the present instrument’s shortcomings, and the ways in which the new organ will be able to fulfil the bigger demands which will be placed upon it over the coming years.
The Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, John Bush OBE, and festival director Ashley Grote, encouraged everyone to spread the word about the organ project to friends wherever they might be; the festival already counts among its supporters music lovers from America to New Zealand, as well as throughout the UK.
The next event will be on Friday 9th December at 7.30pm in Edington Priory Church when musicians from the festival return to perform a Concert of Music and Readings for Advent. Tickets for this event, in aid of church funds, are £7.50 and more details will be available from 01380 830733 from 1st October and on the Edington Music Festival website, www.edingtonfestival.org.