For over the last four decades the Cathedral and its organ has hosted the International Organ Festival at St Albans at two yearly intervals. It is the worlds longest running festival which celebrates the pipe organ and the music written for it. It includes one of the most significant international competitions for organists in the world and almost every world-famous organist from the second half of the twentieth century has performed concerts on this instrument. The significance and success of this festival also influenced the Chapter's decision in no small part. They are very aware of our heritage and are proud to host of the festival.

The organ fell silent after the services on Sunday 5th August 2007 and will not be returned to use until Easter 2009.

The work on the cathedral organ is very significant in some ways, but there is no intention to alter its character - rather the style of additional stops will be made to match the existing instrument. There will be a few discrete additions and indeed some Mixture stops will be returned to their original pitches, as they were installed in 1962, which were slightly lower than they are at the time of dismantling the organ

Eventually the Chapter hopes to make the significant addition of a small chorus of pipes in the north nave triforium in order to help the clarity of the organ in leading congregational singing in this very long building. That work is likely to be completed at a later date, but will be prepared for on the main organ console.

The bulk of the work and cost, however, is going on the repair and replacement of worn or damaged actions and soundboards, which are suffering from decay and the over-dry atmosphere that was prevalent in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Almost all of the manual soundboards will be replaced with new and the slider action will now be operated by solenoids, which are silent in operation, after 45 years of clunks from the electro-pneumatic slider motors.

The organ will also look different. When the current main cases were installed in 1907, the architect was constrained to use the display pipes from its previous configuration in the centre of the organ screen (facing east and west). So the case was designed and constructed to contain pre-existing pipes. Normally the process works in the opposite direction, where an organ case is designed to clothe the instrument with pipes that are newly made, with foot and body lengths that suit the proportions of the new case. We are taking opportunity to do this now in order to gain two other distinct advantages.

The first advantage of this change will be visual. The new case pipes will be of much brighter metal so that the present rather heavy and dull profile and the tarnished appearance of the organ should be transformed with the better pipe proportions adding elegance to the detail.

The second advantage is a gain in sound distribution and internal space. In some places The case pipes will be more widely spaced, releasing more of the organ’s rich sound out into the building, and also far more of the pipes will speak (currently around 45 pipes in the present facades are dumb) which will enable the designers to create more breathing space or the larger pipes and better access for maintenance to the internal pipes.

The work will be done by the original builders of the organ, Harrison & Harrison of Durham. The organ consultant is Ian Bell and the artistic adviser is Andrew Lucas, the Cathedral's Master of the Music.

Andrew Lucas, August 2007