Hereford Cathedral is delighted to be presenting another great series of summer organ concerts. This year there will be no fewer than 20 lunchtime recitals, which take place at 1.15 pm on Tuesdays between May and September, featuring organists from all over the country.

The series starts on May 3rd, with the cathedral’s current organ scholar, Charles Maxtone-Smith, who will be taking up the organ scholarship at New College, Oxford in the autumn.

Many people will remember Charles’s predecessors, and it’s very good that three former Hereford organ scholars are also playing this year: Jonny Allsopp ( July 12th), Tim Parsons (August 23rd) and Joseph Wicks (September 13th).

Among the many other highlights this year, the Cathedral will welcome the assistant director of music at Gloucester Cathedral, Jonathan Hope, on May 24th, and the director of music at Portsmouth Cathedral, David Price, on June 7th.

Later that month, the recital on June 28th is shared between the two organ scholars of Trinity College, Cambridge, Owain Park and Alexander Hamilton. The season ends on September 27th with the traditional ‘Audience Requests’ concert given by Peter Dyke, Hereford Cathedral’s assistant director of music.

There are also two gala evening concerts this year, both starting at 7.15 pm. The first, given by Peter Dyke on Tuesday, June 14th, will include music by Mendelssohn, Bach, Reger and Tchaikovsky.

On Tuesday, September 6th, the Cathedral will host the famous virtuoso organist from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Olivier Latry, who will play Bach’s Passacaglia as well as spectacular examples from the French repertoire; The organisers at Hereford Cathedral claim that this will be an opportunity to hear one of the great players of the world play one of the great organs of the world and definitely should not be missed.