Summer Concerts at the Elephant Organ - Organist Thomas Ospital (Paris)

Summer Concerts at the Elephant Organ

Join beautiful tones from the Elephant Organ throughout the summer on Tuesdays at 19:30. Admission is free.

On Tuesday, August 18, you can experience organist Thomas Ospital (Paris).

Thomas Ospital (born 1990) is titular organist at the great organ in the Saint-Eustache Church in Paris, organist in residence at Radio France, and professor of organ at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP). He is regarded as one of his generation's leading concert organists and has won numerous international organ competitions. As a soloist and improviser, he has performed throughout Europe as well as in North America and is particularly recognized for his virtuosic playing and improvisational artistry.

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Welcome to Summer Concerts in Vor Frelsers Church

In 1700, the Elephant Organ was inaugurated in Vor Frelsers Church as one of Northern Europe's finest large Baroque organs. It was in the early period of absolute monarchy, and musical enjoyment was still reserved for the king and his court, but with an instrument like this, music in the 1600s moved out to the people. The church was society's gathering place, and music was an essential part of the people's Lutheran worship. Yet the people were to remember the Elephant Organ's donor, the Father of the Realm, Christian V, whose bust was placed in the middle of the organ - close to the congregation, yet elevated.

Since the late 1700s, music for the people has meant more than just worship music. Public concerts in the church can be traced back to at least 1798, but from 1903, Vor Frelsers Church has held a central place in the musical life of the city and country with the many concerts that have resounded here beneath one of Northern Europe's largest cross vaults.

Just as the church year and the congregation's life find their foundation and their weekly salt-water injection in Sunday's high masses, the church's musical life for more than a hundred years has placed much of its identity in the 'Summer Concerts'. On Tuesday evenings in Vor Frelsers Church during the summer, one has for many years been able to listen to the Elephant Organ and all its