Johnson Heng writes an insightful update on the restoration of St. Mary’s Cathedral pipe organ.

“Mission Accomplished” and our historic “Father Willis” pipe organ is once more leading our services in the main Cathedral and the Restoration Fund has now met all the costs of its dismantling, shipping to the UK, rebuilding and reinstallation back here.

This was accomplished within a remarkably short space of time given the shipping distances and the modifications made to the restored instrument.

A key figure in all of the heavy work involved was our Cathedral member and Server, Johnson Heng, who worked hundreds of hours “pro bono” to assist our UK contractors, Peter Wood and Son of Harrogate, Yorkshire.

Johnson himself now takes up the story:
The Willis Organ is truly a gem in Malaysia. It has a rank of reed pipes invented by William Hill of London for his Swell divisions, and much favoured by Henry Willis, who perfected it. It is also the only church organ in West Malaysia that has a reed stop.

Thanks to Mr. Mark Wood, I was involved in most of the restoration carried out by his family firm, Peter Wood and Son of Harrogate, Yorkshire. It was a privilege and joy to visit the firm and Shires Organ Pipe Ltd. in Leeds, and see how a pipe organ is dismantled with great care. After the restoration of our organ in Harrogate, the work back at the Cathedral began with the trackers being connected to the keyboard. Some new trackers had to be made in the Cathedral itself since several of the previous ones had either been lost or badly damaged.

Being one of only two pipe manufacturers in the UK, Shires Organ Pipe Ltd. was kind enough to demonstrate how an organ pipe is soldered which gave me a clear picture of how one is made. Surprisingly, they are still using very traditional methods such as fire to heat up the soldering iron. Shires Organ Ltd played a very important role in replacing the missing pipes in our Cathedral’s organ. They also did quite excellent work in restoring one of the facade pipes which was heavily damaged when the organ was dismantled.

Putting the entire organ back together again was like reliving the story of the organ, from how it
was designed to changes that were later incorporated in it. May God grant us the wisdom to
use this instrument to continue to give Him praise and honour.

Pipe Organ Restoration Fund Update
Key to the fundraising efforts which were so successful, was the “Evening of Sacred Chorale Music” organised by Cantus Musicus. Colin Day, a member of St. Mary’s Cathedral, was instrumental in co-ordinating this memorable evening and he provides the background to the chamber choir whose pro bono performance enabled us to raise a major sum towards the Organ Restoration.

Cantus Musicus, an international chamber choir based in Kuala Lumpur was formed on 11 April 2003.

Cantus Musicus was delighted to give a choral concert on 12 September to raise funds for the restoration of, and to “welcome back”, the Father Willis pipe Organ to the Cathedral.

Renowned Malaysian, Japan based, operatic soprano, Judith Watanabe joined the choir for the evening as our guest soloist.

The evening included classical sacred music from Handel and Bach as well as music from the modern era. The highlight for many, I am sure, was when Judith filled the Cathedral with her wonderful musical interpretation of “The Lord’s Prayer.”