A WORLD-class German organist will give a recital at Walla to mark a special milestone this month.
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Daniel Beilschmidt holds the prestigious role of organist at Leipzig University in Saxony, Germany.
He will give a recital on the Zion Lutheran Church organ at Walla on Sunday, September 22, as part of the town and church's 150th anniversary celebrations.
Beilschmidt will visit Australia as a guest of St John's Southgate Lutheran Church, sponsored by its Bach Cantata Program.
St John's Southgate Lutheran Church director of music Graham Lieschke, who grew up at Walla, said it was a wonderful opportunity to bring Beilschmidt to the Riverina to mark the anniversary.
"Coincidentally, the Zion church organ is also 150 years old, most of it dating from 1869, with some additions when placed in the Walla church in 1967," he said.
There are 1364 pipes in the organ.
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"They come from an organ originally built in 1869 and housed in a Melbourne church, which was recently demolished," according to a Border Mail newspaper article from October 1967.
The present Zion Church is the third church building on the site.
The first (now demolished) was opened in 1870, the second (serving as the hall) in 1889 and the present church in 1924, a spacious cruciform building with tower and spire.
Beilschmidt comes from Saxony, the same region many original Walla settlers hailed from.
In Leipzig, he performs in the three churches where JS Bach worked from 1723 to 1750.
He is also a composer, now preparing the premiere of Deine Nacht, a Passion after St John with the GewandhausChor in the New University Church Leipzig.