April 26 is International Pipe Organ Day and this year the Victoria Centre of the Royal Canadian College of Organists set itself an ambitious challenge: to become the pipe organ capital of Canada.
To achieve this title, the Victoria Centre needed to record the most people playing an organ in a two-hour window. The record to beat: 131. This record was set by the Windsor-Essex Centre on April 23, 2024, with organs played across nine sites in Windsor and Essex County, Ontario.
Seven churches in Victoria participated in the Victoria Centre’s bid to capture that title, including St Peter and St Paul’s, St Luke’s and Christ Church Cathedral.
St Peter and St Paul’s in Esquimalt is home to a Conacher organ, built in 1890-91 by Peter Conacher Co. Ltd. in Huddersfield, England. The organ was originally built for and installed in St John the Divine, Victoria.
On Friday, May 22, 1891, the Victoria Daily Colonist proclaimed that “the finest church instrument on the coast north of San Francisco” would be played that Sunday at St John’s Church. St Peter and St Paul’s bought the organ from St John the Divine in 1912.
St Luke’s is home to a Casavant organ built in 1925 and originally a theatre organ. St Luke’s successfully fundraised to carry out repairs to the organ in 2019.
And the cathedral is home to the Hellmuth Wolff organ, which was installed 20 years ago. According to the cathedral website the organ “has been in use for more than 20,000 hours, including 4000 cathedral services, 3000 rehearsals, 200 concerts and many thousands of hours of late-night practice…”
Christ Church Cathedral has declared 2025 the year of the organ, as they fundraise the $150,000 needed to clean and repair the Hellmuth Wolff. The next event in a series of fundraisers is Beer and Hymns on Friday, June 13, 2025. For more information about the year of the organ and how to donate visit the cathedral website.
All three churches hosted open houses to allow visitors to learn more about each church’s organ and to have a go at playing them. The cathedral also hosted two evening tours, led by the cathedral’s assistant director of music, Mark McDonald. These evening tours were sold out.
According to the Victoria Centre newsletter, visitors of all ages participated — including locals, visitors from the US, an exchange student from Turkey and retired organists — and “many of them left with smiles on their faces and excitement about the organ.”
So, did Victoria claim the organ capital of Canada title? It did! In fact, there were 275 people playing the organ in Victoria between 1-3pm on April 26, 2025 — an increase of 144 from the previous record.
