St George’s Church on Farquhar Street, the oldest Anglican church in South East Asia, was last year presented with a new pipe organ in conjunction with its bicentenary celebrations. The Church’s original organ was destroyed during the bombing of George Town in the Second World War, and it had been without an organ since then, until earlier this year. On Saturday June 16th, the Church will celebrate the new organ in style, with an “Orgel Chorale Soirée”, beginning at 6pm.
The New Organ at St George’s Church Penang
Built by Mander Organs of London at the cost of £280,000 (RM1.5 million), the organ took over 12 months to construct, has 17 stops and 1,050 pipes in total. It will be put through its paces by guest organist Joanna Paul from Singapore. Before returning to Singapore in 2009, she was Deputy Organist at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, and as an accomplished soprano also sang regularly with the BBC Singers for the Morning Worship Programs. She plays and sings regularly in Singapore and Malaysia, especially with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic
Orchestra.
The programme will begin with a brief history of the St George’s pipe organ, and a prayer, followed by an hour of music plus a 15 minute interval, so is planned to end by around 7.30pm. Music to be performed includes Praludium, Fuga und Ciacona (Dietrich Buxtehude), O Sacred Head and Come Holy Ghost (Johann Sebastien Bach), The Lord is my Shepherd(Anton Dvorak), Lead Me Lord (Samuel Sebastian Wesley), Sonate 3 Opus 65 Con moto Maestoso (Felix Mendelssohn) and others.
