Yesterday the museum Collection hosted the first rehearsal within the framework of organising the musical festival dedicated to the inauguration of the Welte Philarmonic organ, which we are arranging in cooperation with the Belcanto Foundation. Our guest was the renowned Russian organist, laureate of international competitions Anastasia Sidelnikova.

The organ with the Welte Mignon playback system - the Philharmonic Organ (Welte philharmonic organ or Welte Reproducing Pipe Organ), was built about a hundred years ago. A unique instrument can play jazz, church and classical music. It works thanks to compressed air and electrical impulses. Its singularity particularly regards playing automatically, which happens thanks to a special device for playing back paper music rolls. One can select one of the encoded on the rolls tunes and the organ will play it automatically. Such organs were built for those who passionately wanted to have an organ in the house, but did not know how to play the instrument.

After a long and eventful life, the organ needed restoration. In  the video"Welte Philarmonic Organ Restoration", you will see some details and the final steps of this amazing instrument restoration. The video is accompanied by comments from the consultant-restorer Thomas Jansen.