The 33rd St Albans International Organ Festival and Competitions will take place from 7 and 19 July 2025.
The Festival welcomes internationally renowned performers – celebrating the organ and so much more.
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Illustration by kind permission of Bucket List Prints, bucketlistprints.com
In 2023 we celebrated sixty years of the International Organ Festival with some very special performances.
Large-scale highlights were a rare chance to hear wonderful musicians headed by the Britten Sinfonia presenting two monumental works in the same evening – the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony and Berlioz’s Te Deum – and the first ever concert in St Albans by The Tallis Scholars, who are celebrating their own 50th birthday this year.
The list of exceptional performers goes on, catering for a wide range of musical tastes: the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective; solo piano from our newest Patron, Angela Hewitt; recitals by tenor James Gilchrist with Anna Tilbrook and violinist Rachel Podger with Christopher Glynn and special guest narrator John Suchet; and the evergreen jazz singer Elaine Delmar.
Organ-focused events included recitals by our distinguished jury; free Bach Corner lunchtime recitals by outstanding young organists; 15 competition sessions and Prize-Winnners’ Concert; late-night live accompaniment to the 1920 German horror film Der Golem; a free showing of a director’s cut of the Organ Stops documentary which first aired on BBC television on Christmas Eve; and Judith Weir, the composer of this year’s interpretation competition commissioned work, in conversation.
In addition to the music, the popular Art Exhibition was open every day in the Cathedral’s North Transept, with free entry.
There was still more, with free live jazz at Lussmanns, our local sustainable kitchen in the Sunday Times’ list of the 100 Best Places to Eat in the UK.
David Titterington, Artistic Director
Join us in the wonderful city of St Albans – with its Roman remains, glorious cathedral and other historic buildings, as well as cafes and restaurants aplenty – just 20 minutes by train from London, or 10 minutes from the M25 orbital motorway.
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