Christian Cartwright

Christian Cartwright plays the St Albans Organ Theatre on Saturday 13 November 2027, with the concert starting at 15:00 and doors open from 14:30. It's a theatre-organ afternoon, and Cartwright will be working with the venue's Wurlitzer and Compton instruments.

If you've never been, the St Albans Organ Theatre on Camp Road is a bit of a hidden gem. It's a musical museum as much as a theatre, and it houses the St Albans Organ Museum too. The collection of mechanical self-playing instruments is the real draw: reproducing pianos, music boxes, Victorian hand-turned organettes, and the rare Mills Violano, which is a coin-operated self-playing violin with an integral piano. There are also four large Belgian dance organs and two working theatre pipe organs. The theatre runs monthly public openings and a regular programme of theatre-organ concerts, usually on the second Sunday of the month from March to November, when all the working instruments are demonstrated.

Cartwright comes to this one with a particular interest in the restoration and preservation of theatre organs, and he's played a wide range of British and American examples over the years. For this concert, he'll be drawing on that experience with the historic Wurlitzer and Compton instruments on site.

Tickets are £15, and the afternoon kicks off at 15:00, with doors open from 14:30. You'll find the theatre at 320 Camp Road, St Albans, AL1 5PE.