2025 is the Year of the Organ!

This Saturday at 4.00 p.m. is the launch of the Year of the Organ, a series of concerts and events to celebrate the cathedral's iconic Hellmuth Wolff organ, a gem of Victoria's musical life that turns 20 years old this year.

Saturday's opening concert features an abundance of musical bonbons and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite will take centre stage. Resident cathedral organists Donald Hunt and Mark McDonald will premiere a brand new 4-hand (and several feet!) arrangement of the entire Nutcracker orchestral suite written for the occasion by Mark McDonald. The two organists have been working hard to bring the virtuosic arrangement to life as you can here in this recent clip from a late-night practice session!

To add to the festivities, the organists will be joined by a few other local legends... Tenor Benjamin Butterfield is no stranger to Christ Church Cathedral having started his illustrious musical career as a boy chorister up in the cathedral choir loft. He and Hunt will perform Britten's A New Year Carol and Les Échos de Notre-Dame by Québécois composer Jean-Baptiste Labelle.

Finally, we'll be treated to beloved Victoria pianists Jane Edler-Davis and Wendy Stofer who make up the two halves of piano duo KlaVIERhands. The duo have performed many times under the gothic vaulting of Christ Church Cathedral and will show off their virtuosic technique with the Viennese flair of Johann Strauss Jr's Tales from the Vienna Woods and Fritz Kreisler's Liebesfreude.

Don't miss out on this festive celebration of one of Victoria's musical gems. Read more about the concert in this article by Times Colonist writer Mike Devlin and see you at 4.00 p.m. on Saturday January 4 for the Year of the Organ!

The Year of the Organ

Saturday, January 4, 4.00 p.m.

Featuring Donald Hunt & Mark McDonald, organ

Benjamin Butterfield, tenor

& KlaVIERhands (Jane Edler-Davis & Wendy Stofer, piano)

Admission by donation.

This concert will also be livestreamed on the cathedral website.