The First and the Last. On the 8th May the First Recital in the Cathedral’s Summer Series was destined to be the Last Recital of Alex Mason before his departure to become Organist and Master of the Choristers and Artistic Director of St David’s Cathedral Festival. 

The “voicing” of the new mobile Phoenix Organ continues.  This will allow it to be played at the west end of the Cathedral, in the crossing and at its normal “home” in the Lady Chapel. As well as being used to accompany orchestras etc, by changing its pitch, it can also used in conjunction with the great Hill Organ.  A further innovation is that as well as having the usual (English) church organ sound, its specification also enables it to reproduce a French and a German “voice” when the occasions require.  A truly remarkable instrument!

This time last year there was a three-fold increase in the number of visitors to Lichfield Cathedral.  They had come to see an Angel, 1200 hundred years old and 60 cm tall.

We look forward to welcoming three new appointees to Lichfield. We thank God for all the gifts and talents they bring to the Cathedral; we pray that we may learn from them and appreciate their contribution to the Cathedral’s mission and ministry. 

Another successful MusicShare concert took place in the Cathedral on the 13 March 2007, when children from Five Ways Primary School in Heath Hayes, Fulfen Primary from Burntwood and St Teresa's RC Primary School from Stoke combined with our Choristers and Girls Choir, under the direction of Philip Scriven, the Organist and master of the Choristers and Alex Mason, the Assistant Organist, gave a concert to some 300 parents. This was the twelth such, termly, event financed entirely through a grant from the Choir Schools Association, and was an outstanding success.

A Youth Bank grant of £2,100 from the Staffordshire Youth Service to the young people of Lichfield Cathedral heralds an exciting new music initiative that promises to be a national first.