Chris Powell

Chris Powell plays the St Albans Organ Theatre on Saturday 11 December, a performance that closes the venue's listed concert season. He'll be working across theatre and electronic organ music, so you'll hear both styles in one afternoon.

If you've never been, the St Albans Organ Theatre is as much a museum as it is a concert space. It houses a collection of mechanical self-playing instruments: reproducing pianos, music boxes, Victorian hand-turned organettes and the rare Mills Violano, alongside four large Belgian dance organs and two working theatre pipe organs. It runs a regular series of theatre organ concerts and holds monthly public openings on the second Sunday of the month from March to November, when all the working instruments are demonstrated.

Powell is one of the UK's premier entertainment organists and an international ambassador of electronic and theatre organ music. Born in Manchester in 1971, he moved to New Zealand at age two and returned to England at five, taking up piano and organ studies and performing from the age of 14. By 18 he was playing at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, and he later became a demonstrator for organ manufacturers like Roland, touring on the AT-900C Atelier.

The concert starts at 3:00pm, with doors opening at 2:30pm, and tickets are £15. The theatre is at 320 Camp Road, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 5PE.