Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart once called the pipe organ “the king of instruments.”
Considered by many to be a marvel of music and engineering, the pipe organ is one of the oldest and most complex acoustic instruments ever created. Featuring thousands of pipes, weighing several tons, and requiring extreme coordination and mental acuity to play, this wind instrument is nothing short of a work of art.
Expensive and imposing, pipe organs have found their home in places of worship around the globe that could afford and accommodate them, from Ancient Greece to the present day.
Interestingly, few people may know that Victoria currently hosts Canada’s largest mechanical-action organ west of the Rockies. When entering the Christ Church Cathedral, parishioners and visitors can witness the 20-ton instrument, built by world-renowned organ maker Hellmuth Wolff, suspended in the air on a reinforced steel frame.
Yet, after 20 years in use, with more than 20,000 hours, including 4,000 cathedral services, 3,000 rehearsals, 200 concerts, and many thousand hours of late-night practice by cathedral musicians, the organ now needs a bit of love.
Accumulating dust, with pipes falling silent and various components showing normal signs of wear and tear, the cathedral is now raising $150,000 to bring the “voice of the cathedral” back to its former glory.
Humble beginnings
Shortly after it was built, the first Christ Church Cathedral burned to the ground on Sept. 30, 1869. Despite the loss, clergy members and local parishioners managed to rescue the original organ, which survived the blaze.
A second cathedral, built of wood, was later constructed on the same site. However, as the community grew, the building could no longer meet the needs of the expanding congregation.
Construction of a third cathedral – the one that still stands today – began in the late 1920s.
But in 1929, the Great Depression hit, forcing several projects, including plans for a new pipe organ, to be delayed due to a lack of funding.
Mark McDonald, organist and the cathedral’s assistant director of music, explained that in the meantime, the church used the original 1862 instrument for the next 70 years.
“From the 1930s to the 1990s, they were using this old organ that had been held together with duct tape and prayers,” he said. “In the 1980s, they started to get serious about replacing that old sort of Frankenstein organ.”
Thanks to former music director Michael Gormley, a vision for a “spectacular” instrument began to take shape, and fundraising efforts gained momentum. It took a decade to raise the $1.5 million needed and, in 1999, the cathedral signed a contract with Quebec-based organ builder Helmut Wolff, whom McDonald described as “one of the greatest organ builders of the time.”
It took Wolff and his team six years to build, carefully crafting every pipe before its installation in the church in 2005. Considered one of his masterpieces, it is Wolff’s 47th organ out of the 50 he built, and his largest.
Weighing over 20 tons and featuring 4,000 pipes, 61 stops, and 85 ranks, McDonald explained that the instrument was so large that a steel frame had to be installed between the church’s two bell towers to support it and make it earthquake-resistant.
Besides its sheer magnitudes, the organ is best known for its musicality, said McDonald.
“What makes this organ so special is that Wolff was really a musician at heart and you can hear that in the way that he gave voice to the instrument,” he said. “The pipework really sings. Every time I have played one of his organs, I’ve always been struck by their musicality.
“Many working builders struggle to find the right voice in their organs, but for him I always think of his organs as singing.”
However, after two decades of daily use, the organ’s delicate mechanisms, keyboards, and pipework, among other components, now require thorough renewal.
For this reason, a fundraiser was launched in 2025 to raise the $150,000 needed for restoration work by Juget-Sinclair, a firm made up of former associates of Helmuth Wolff, said Thomas Chase, chair of the fundraising committee.
With $120,000 already raised, Chase and his team are still looking for another $30,000 before the work on the organ begins in mid-June, with a completion date in early September.
While some may see it as just another instrument, Chase and McDonald said its significance to the church, parishioners, and the wider Victoria community cannot be overstated.
“The organ is the voice of the cathedral; it fills the place with thunder but it can, it can whisper,” Chase saif. “It can sing, it can croon, it can do anything you want.”
“People who are coming in and hearing it for the first time are just overwhelmed by the sounds that it makes. It just surrounds you.”
“The organ gives voice to the liturgy,” added McDonald. “Having such an inspiring organ very much inspires the way that we sing and participate in the worship.
“This building demands a large instrument and without this organ, we would not be able to support the cathedral’s liturgy.”
A “hidden gem,” according to both men, the organ has helped create a vibrant artistic hub while also serving as a draw for tourists. Chase and McDonald noted that the instrument, originally a major community investment in 1999, quickly became a focal point for groups gathering around it. The upcoming restoration work is expected to reaffirm those goals.
“It’s quite emotional and people speak of getting a lump in their throats when they hear the instrument,” said Chase. “What I love to see is kids coming in, who have never seen or heard an instrument like that, and you can see they’re wide-eyed. They just cannot quite comprehend how something so big can sound so beautiful.”
Donations can be made online through CanadaHelps via tiny.cc/lx34101. Cheques are also accepted and should be made payable to “Christ Church Cathedral,” with “Organ Project” noted in the memo line. They can be dropped off or mailed to the cathedral’s office located at 930 Burdett Ave. E-transfers can be sent to giving@christchurchcathedral.bc.ca with donors asked to include “organ project” in the message field.
For more information about the Christ Church Cathedral, visit christchurchcathedral.bc.ca.
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