Baroque Festival: Bach the Kapellmeister
The Klais Organ
VCH ORGAN SERIES
Baroque Festival: Bach the Kapellmeister
FREE
5 October 2018
Pipe Up!
FREE
10 December 2018 Singapore Bicentennial Concert
Thomas Trotter – Arrival, 1819 15 February 2019
No Orchestra? No Problem 1 April 2019
If With All Your Hearts 20 May 2019
The Little Elephant 15 June 2019
FREE
FREE
The Klais organ, built by German organ-builder Orgelbau Klais, replaced the St. Clair organ that had been built in the Victoria Concert Hall (VCH) some 50 years earlier in 1931. The St. Clair organ was named after Major W. G. St. Clair, founder of the old Philharmonic Society and the first editor of the Singapore Free Press, and its façade was retained after the installation of the Klais organ.
SEASON OVERVIEW
The VCH Klais Organ brings organists from around the world in a magnificent range of music, from traditional organ soliloquys to transcriptions of orchestral showpieces, contemporary compositions for the King of Instruments as well as collaborations with other instruments.
The Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ is Singapore’s only fully mechanical organ, and has strong emotional links with generations of audiences. It was first installed in 1987 through fundraising efforts from the then-newly formed Singapore Symphony Orchestra Ladies’ League.
In 2010, with the redevelopment of the VCH and Victoria Theatre, the organ – consisting of a total of 2,012 pipes – was methodically removed piece by piece, repaired and stored in climate-controlled warehouses during the refurbishment period. Many donors and supporters of classical music, notably the Lee Foundation, stepped forward to provide financial support for the restoration. When the VCH reopened in the second half of 2014, the organ once again took centrestage, providing awe-inspiring and delicate strains of music to old and new audiences. We started the VCH Organ Series in 2014 as a set of concerts to showcase the beauty and power of the Klais organ to the people of Singapore.
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