The South Yorkshire Organ Festival is well underway this month and has made its way to Sheffield Cathedral.
Yesterday, organist James Mitchell gave an ‘Introduction to the Organ’, in the hopes of increasing people’s understanding of the complex instrument.
Mr Mitchell said: “It’s about promoting the organ for anybody and everybody and providing a basis for people to come and learn, and hopefully enjoy the organ.”
This was the first time he played a selection of pieces for the audience and offered demonstrations of how the organ’s various parts work whilst playing.
It was a great success with members of the audience queuing to speak to him after.
He said: “This was much more involved. I was trying to show what was going on with the feet, how and why what was happening was happening, and just giving people a more in depth look at things.”
One of the pieces he played was a popular wedding song by French composer Charles-Marie Widor, which the audience erupted into applause after.
Mr Mitchell is the Cathedral Organist and Head of Keyboard Studies, having previously held posts at Ely Cathedral, Manchester Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, before coming here to Sheffield Cathedral.
He started off as a pianist, and was introduced to the organ by one of his music teachers at school.
Mr Mitchell said: “The organ is a fairly unknown instrument. Historically, the only people who write music for it are organists, and so there’s actually a lot of ground and things you can explore and do differently.”
He recognised that getting started with the organ was much more difficult than the piano because organs are often part of a building or church, making accessing the instrument very difficult for most.
Speaking about the South Yorkshire Organ Festival as a whole, he said: “Organists are often hidden away to the side or in a gallery somewhere, so you can’t often see what’s going on, you can only really hear it.
“So we’re bringing the organ out to the front so you can see it and see everything that’s going on.”
On Saturday 25th May from 2pm to 3.30pm, Sheffield Cathedral is holding a drop-in event for anyone to have a go at playing the organ. It’s open to all ages and musical abilities.
