Ripon Cathedral organ festival

Ripon Cathedral’s pipe organ is being revealed in all its glory this month at a Summer Organ Festival.

The showcase of what it can do will premier a specially commissioned animation telling the cathedral’s 1350-year-old story.

The festival, from June 7-July 5, is part of a year of special events including art installations which run until the autumn, a photographic exhibition, concerts, talks and pilgrimages, as the cathedral celebrates the building of a great church on the site by its founding patron St Wilfrid in 672 AD.

Director of Music Dr Ronny Krippner said: “The Summer Organ Festival aims to show the organ in all its colours and all its glory and to give it the time and the attention it deserves.

“It is played in concerts and in services – to accompany the choir and at the end, but it has more of a serving role usually, whereas now it’s about letting it speak as a concert instrument and it’s really important to give it that opportunity.”

One of the highlights of the festival is a concert on June 21 by the acclaimed Scott Brothers Duo, whose programme is a collaboration between visual arts, organ composition and piano playing.

They’ll be treating the audience to popular pieces such as Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Ahead of their concert Tom and Jonathan Scott will perform at a free event for local schools at the cathedral, providing a fun insight into classical music for some 300 school children.

“It’s important that children are exposed to going to a concert, I think that’s the main thing… hearing instruments that you might not normally hear,” said Jonathan.

“I mean these days, on TV, you don’t get people giving organ recitals or piano recitals so young people aren’t going to be exposed to them readily.”

Their animation - A Cathedral’s Story - premieres that evening.

Tom explained: “I’ve spent thousands of hours working on this and it’s been really interesting to do the background research in to how everything was and is now, from the Anglo Saxon monastery to the church built by Wilfrid that became Ripon Cathedral.”

Tickets www.riponcathedral.org.uk/organ