Christchurch Town Hall Organ Events

Some of the 1300+ assembling before an earlier concert in the Christchurch Town Hall.

Thanks to the support of the Friends of the Christchurch Town Hall Organ Trust, and Venues Management Otautahi, my annual FREE organ curator’s concert will again take place in the Town Hall auditorium on King's Birthday public holiday afternoon, Monday 1st June 2026 at 2.00pm. 

Details of the programme and how to book will be released closer to the date.

Thanks to Terry Thompson (Sea-am Thompson's proud father), we have videos of Monday's King's Birthday concert in Christchurch Town Hall. They are divided into 3 sections, so if you listen one after the other in order, you will get more or less the whole concert.

And by way of explanation, the gallery is not allowed to be used for our concerts, so if you were wondering where the audience was, they filled the downstairs stalls to capacity.

1st section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qQ_qBpWQik

2nd: Sea-am: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr3RNu15qgI

3rd section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ47OkgFwgc

The 2022 Organ Curator's concert was a popular event on Monday with around 1300 people attending. Organist Martin Setchell got the biggest surprise of his life when Mayor Lianne Dalziel announced that the City Council was about to present him with a commendation in honour of his 25 dedicated years as curator of the iconic Rieger organ. Everyone in the audience was let in on the secret, but blinded by spotlights, Martin didn't see Councillor Yani Johanson trying to present him with the award, and sat down to begin playing. 

The delighted laughter of the audience alerted Martin to the approaching award and he paused long enough to accept it, lost for words. But his playing said it all. Thank you Martin, for those 25 amazing years.