Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is to unveil its brand new ‘Juliet’ organ in a week-long festival of free concerts and masterclasses. The new 1,138 pipe organ has been custom built by UK specialists William Drake Ltd for RBC’s dedicated Organ Studio.

The Inaugural Festival will include performances and talks by Daniel Moult (Head of Organ, RBC) & colleague and organ tutor Nicholas Wearne; award-winning organist and RBC Junior Fellow Carolyn Craig; Henry Fairs (Professor of Organ at the Universität der Künste, Berlin, and former Head of Organ at RBC); and Anna-Victoria Baltrusch (Professor of Organ at the Evangelische Hochschule für Kirchenmusik, Halle). Romantic music from England, France and Germany are at the heart of the programme with composers including Elgar, Parry, Saint-Saëns, Franck, Schumann, and Price.

Alongside the concerts, students from the organ department will explore the repertoire in public masterclasses, and Daniel Moult will give a masterclass for invited school students from across the UK. The building of the instrument will also be the subject of a short, filmed documentary to be completed with footage from the festival and to be released in the new year.

Daniel Moult said: ‘The installation of the new ‘Juliet’ organ is a further step in training our talented student musicians to reach their full potential.  The commissioning of these significant new organs enables us to educate and inspire in ways previously unimagined.’

Stephen Maddock OBE, Principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, said: ‘The wonderful ‘Juliet’ organ adds to the existing state-of-the-art facilities and top-level teaching to cement Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s reputation as a centre of excellence for the training of world-class organists.  We are immensely grateful for the major donations that have made this possible.’

The week-long festival is running from the 4–10 November 2024.