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Organ Recital - April 2011
Bill Ritchie gave an Organ Recital on the newly restored organ at St Mary's on Sunday
10th April 2010.
Bill was Director of Music at Glasgow Academy for 28 years. He is currently
one of a team of organists at Alloway Parish Church and has been previously Assistant Organist at Glasgow Cathedral and later
Assistant to the Director of Music at Paisley Abbey. He accompanies the Paisley Philharmonic Choir and the Kilmarnock
and District Choral Union.
St Mary’s
was recently refurbished at considerable expense. One of the major items which needed extensive work was
our Binns Willis Organ, which had been damaged by plaster falling into its works and pipes. The Organ was
completely dismantled, repaired and rebuilt in 2009. So we looked forward to hearing our organ performing to its full potential
under Bills’ considerable talent, something not heard for some years.
The recital on 10th April was a resounding success. Bill
opened with the Widor Toccata. His reasoning was that playing a piece with over 2000 quavers on a tracker
organ would be beyond him at the end of the evening, when the piece had originally been programmed. The programme was wonderfully varied in pace and mood and included works written by Mozart (father and son) Vaughan
Williams, Murril, Haydn, William Walton and others. Bill finished with the rousing Toccata and Fugue by
Bach.
A wonderful climax to a wonderful evening.
Our thanks to Bill
Ritchie and all who came to hear him.
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Lyra
Ensemble – 21st May 2011.
The Lyra Ensemble, from St Petersburg, tour Britain each year (sometimes twice a year). They are all trained singers
and form a community of professional musicians. Most of the members are students or postgraduates of Saint-Petersburg Conservatoire,
working in different choirs of Saint-Petersburg. Some are also soloists at musical theatres in the cityThe LYRA choir community includes about 25 people. They tour
in small groups of soloists consisting of 5-6. In 2001 they were awarded the Montreux international choral festival diploma.
In 2005 the group was also a winner of Coleraine International Choral Festival (Northern Ireland).
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| The Lyra ensemble from St Petersburg at St Mary's in March 2010 |
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