Hi everybody!
I freely confess, it's been a while. Maybe it's been too long.. There were some problems - burnout, travel, priorities, and life… not quite yet all in a right order, but life goes on. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps? I trust this issue, redresses the situation and provides welcome news of achievements and what is happening.
A milestone achievement for TOSA (ACT) was completion of the Compton console as part of the Albert Hall 80th Birthday Celebration on Canberra Day, 10th March 2008. I am sure those who attended the organ inspection and display following the VIP ceremony would have been duly impressed with the newly refurbished console in its freshly painted white and gold livery with new keyboard surrounds and stop-assembly configurations.
The 80th Birthday Celebration staged by the Friend of the Albert Hall Inc. provided the opportunity for TOSA (ACT) to invite the Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, officials, National Trust and Heritage representatives on a personal close inspection of the console and pipe-chambers. A display was arranged around the console enclosure with historic photos and technical diagrams of chambers, Artisan system, new stop configuration, etc. and chunks from the old relay system with axed wiring looms for all to see. It really brought into focus the thousands of man-hour spent thus far!!
This was the grand opportunity to present to the Government, and the public alike, what TOSA (ACT) as a community association with very limited resources – both physical and financial – has been achieving, in an unassuming way, over the past 5 years or so. The signage on the organ indicated the Compton is undergoing major Console upgrade and refurbishment, with the re-commission of the organ planned for Heritage Week, 2008.
The Chief Minister was quite effusive in his comments to me on TOSA's involvement in a project for the benefit of the community at large, greatly impressed with the obvious hours of voluntary effort involved in the upgrade work, and looking forward to a successful completion of the task. Earlier, in his official speech, the Chief Minister made a joking reference to the Albert Hall's longest tenant!! I thought, here it comes – some one at last recognising TOSA’s long-standing involvement with the Albert Hall - but then he referred to those purveyors of Persian Rugs! A political point, with which the audience quickly recognised, with hasty applause! Don’t we know it! .
The Friends of the Albert Hall Inc. are to be congratulated for organising the highly successful Birthday celebration, with its due emphasis and importance on the continuing use of the hall for local cultural and community associations. Our own Vice-President, Stuart Wagner, added to the occasion in providing a piano interlude as a lead up to the official ceremony and our own stage crew of Steve, Geoff and Stuart were very much responsible for the smooth operations behind the scene.
Given the great pressure that the restoration team were under in completing the console for the Birthday function, a respite and pause in restoration activities has been earned and well appreciated. Now, we face the challenge to complete the wiring installation and get the console electronics connected and fully tested and working again. Let’s hope this can be swiftly achieved with minimal external interruptions!
Kingsley Herbert.
President.