Download 2025 OHTA Conference Booklet
This year’s OHTA conference will take place between Sunday 28 September and Saturday 4 October. Starting in Sydney, a coach will take participants west over the Blue Mountains to Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange, and returning east in a wide arc through Carcoar, Harden, Gunning and Goulburn. The conference will provide a remarkable opportunity to see a wide range of organs, often in very fine architectural settings. Conference papers will focus on the growing problem of redundant organs resulting from church closures and changing worship styles.
Accommodation has been booked in Penrith, Medlow Bath, Bathurst, Orange and Goulburn. Conference registrations can be made by using the form, or directly on the web through www.trybooking.com/CYDMF . Booking fees will be absorbed by OHTA.
The conference will start in Sydney on Sunday 28 September at 4:00 pm with a recital played by Simon Niemiński on the Létourneau and Whitehouse organs at St Mary’s Cathedral. For those wishing to hear the acclaimed choir, Vespers and Benediction will follow at 5:00 pm. A visit to St James’ Anglican Church, King Street (opposite St Mary’s) will follow at 6:00 pm, where participants will have the opportunity to hear the new Dobson organ in a demonstration/recital by Thomas Wilson.
On Monday 29 September, a coach will collect participants at the western entrance to Central Station at 9:00 am, with visits to St John’s Anglican Church, Darlinghurst (Hill 1885), where a recital will be given by Sam Giddy and St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, Parramatta (Norman & Beard 1898), where local organ scholars will perform. Several papers will be delivered during the day.
On Tuesday 30 September, visits will be made to organs by Johnson & Kinloch, Hunter Hele, Richardson and Leggo in Sydney’s outer west, Glenbrook and Katoomba, with a brief stop to view the wide vistas of the Blue Mountains National Park, including the famous sandstone formation, The Three Sisters. A recital, by Daniel Justin (Director of Music, St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney) will be given on the 1880 Hele & Co organ at St Finbar’s Glenbrook. A highlight of the evening will be the conference dinner at the Hydro Majestic Hotel in Medlow Bath, where we will stay for the night. From here, expansive views over the Megalong Valley to the west can be enjoyed.
Wednesday 1 October will feature instruments by Richardson, Pipe Organs WA, Roberts, Hill, Norman & Beard, Noad and Hunter in Blackheath, Mount Victoria, Lithgow, Wallerawang and Kelso.
Thursday 2 October will start at the Uniting Church in Bathurst (Davidson 1874), followed by morning tea at Abercrombie House, which stands on the rural estate of the Morgan family. In this outstanding example of Victorian Tudor style architecture, we will hear two small organs (Kirtland & Jardine and Fincham), before moving on to Orange, where there are notable organs by the British Pianoforte Co., Field, Leggo and Pogson.
On Friday 3 October, an extensive tour will take us through the tranquil pastoral countryside of the Central West, stopping to hear and play unaltered instruments by Kirkland, Richardson and Dodd in Carcoar and Harden, as well as the delightful chamber organ by an unknown builder in the charming St Edmund’s Anglican Church in Gunning.
Saturday 4 October, the final day, will feature two of the finest nineteenth-century organs in Australia: the stunning 1890 Hill organ in Ss Peter & Paul Old Cathedral, Goulburn (which will be played in a recital by Peter Jewkes) and the outstanding 1884 Forster & Andrew’s organ in St Saviour’s Anglican Cathedral, to be played by Dr Brett McKern. The final instrument will be a very rare example of a country Masonic organ – the 1929 Leggo organ in the Goulburn Masonic Centre.
The coach will return to Sydney in the afternoon, with arrival at Sydney Domestic Airport terminals anticipated by 4:15 pm, followed by a final drop-off at Central Station at 5:00 pm. For further enquiries, please send an email to Kelvin Hastie at [email protected], or phone Hugh Knight on 0400 753 087.
