Peter Dyke will perform a gala organ concert at Hereford Cathedral on Tuesday 14 May at 7.15 pm.

Each summer, Hereford Cathedral welcomes organists from across the world to perform a series of lunchtime recitals and two gala evening concerts are also arranged as part of the programme.

Peter Dyke will give one of the two gala evening concerts, playing music by Charpentier, J.S. Bach, Louis Vierne and a complete performance of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals. The 4,000 pipes of the Father Willis organ will show their full range of colour and texture as the instrument is coaxed to imitate the lion, fishes, elephant, cuckoo, swan, fossils and other animals depicted in the work.

Peter Dyke, Assistant Director of Music at Hereford Cathedral, said “It’s a hugely rewarding challenge to play orchestral and other repertoire on the organ at Hereford Cathedral. Works such as the Carnival of the Animals are deservedly popular with audiences of all ages and I think you’ll be surprised how effectively we can conjure up the sound of an aquarium or an aviary! I’ll also be playing some great music by the former organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, Louis Vierne, as well as Bach’s beautiful “Schübler” Chorale Preludes.”

The concert starts at 7.15 pm on Tuesday 14 May and tickets (£12, £5 for students) are available in the cathedral shop or at the door. The second gala concert is on 17 September, when the cathedral welcomes the organist of Westminster Cathedral, Martin Baker, to play a programme which features Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Bach’s Passacaglia.