Minster Organ Inaugural Concert

Following three years of raising £250,000 for the Minster Organ Restoration Appeal, we celebrated the arrival of the newly-restored organ with an Organ Inaugural Concert on Saturday 17thNovember – and what a fantastic occasion it was! The Whitgift Chamber Choir joined forces with the Choirs of Croydon Minster and performed a glorious collection of cathedral anthems by Charles Villiers Stanford, John Ireland and Herbert Howells, all under the direction of Croydon Minster's Organist & Director of Choral Music, Ronny Krippner. The concert opened with a world-premiere of an organ piece entitled ‘Thanksgiving’, specifically composed and played for the reopening of the Minster organ by the Minster’s Organist Laureate, Mr Martin How. This was then followed by a sizzling rendition of Benjamin Britten’s festival anthem ‘Rejoice in the Lamb’ which not only showed off the wonderfully varied colours of the organ as well as the choir, but also paired these considerable forces with percussion, played by John Rockliffe. The evening concluded with Edward Elgar’s ‘Te Deum and Benedictus Op. 34’, written for the Three Choirs’ Festival in 1897. This monumental piece expressed what we all felt that night: a real sense of gratitude for having a first-class Minster organ which now benefits so many from the Whitgift Foundation, as well as the wider community. Therefore Te Deum Laudamus – We Praise Thee, O God!