Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, Pipe organ in Concert Hall at Sydney Opera House, Australia.
The Sydney Opera House Grand Organ is a neo-baroque tracker-action instrument in the Concert Hall, with six divisions, five manuals plus pedals, 131 speaking stops and 200 ranks totalling 10,244 pipes. It was designed by Ronald Sharp, assisted by Mark Fisher, Myk Fairhurst and Raymond Bridge.
Ronald Sharp was awarded the organ contract in 1969, while the Opera House was still under construction. The instrument was completed and handed over by the NSW Department of Public Works on 30 May 1979, six years after the building opened, at a cost of 1.2 million dollars. Sharp's mechanical tracker-action design was debated throughout the construction years.
The organ's stops are entirely electronically operated and programmed, letting visiting organists select and store registrations before performing. Players can stand in different parts of the Concert Hall to hear the chosen combination of stops from the audience's side.
Visiting the instrument is usually possible only through tours of the Opera House, which include the hall. It is recommended to check in advance on which days concerts take place if you want to hear it being played.
The organ's stops are entirely electronically operated and programmed, and a system built into the keyboards lets visiting organists record a passage, then stand elsewhere in the hall to hear the registration played back through the electronic action.
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