Your visit

Organ Room

Our historic organ room is at the heart of Glyndebourne's story

Organ Room Sessions

Our Organ Room Sessions are intimate musical performances recorded in our historic Organ Room at the Glyndebourne. We invite legendary and up-and-coming opera singers, who are singing as part of our Festival and Autumn Seasons, to perform accompanied by a piano.

About the Organ Room

Completed in 1920, the Organ Room was built by John Christie as a dedicated space for musical performances. Christie selected Edmond Warre as his architect, Ringmer Building Works as constructors and Dr Charles Harford Lloyd as his organ advisor. Constructed from traditional Bath stone and red brick, the Organ Room became a place for concerts and operatic performances, which were largely attended by local people.

Built by William Hill & Son & Norman & Beard Ltd. in collaboration with John Christie, the organ was finished in late 1920, with subsequent alterations and improvements continuing for several years afterwards. Its grand scale, more befitting a cathedral or large church, proved almost too powerful for the room; its initial test even dislodged a large piece of plaster from the ceiling.

Throughout its history, the Organ Room has hosted numerous world-class musicians for rehearsals and recitals. Notably, Glyndebourne’s co-founder, Audrey Mildmay, first met Christie in this very space in December 1930 while performing with the Carl Rosa Company. They married six months later, in June 1931.

With the extension of the proscenium arch in the Old Theatre during the 1950s, the organ was dismantled to create the necessary additional space. All that remains today is the organ’s outer shell.

‘The building of the great Organ Room was the present owner’s first step towards incorporating into its fabric the expression of his passion for music. In the Organ Room many memorable recitals and concerts were given; at first for private parties of guests and later thrown open to local music enthusiasts and anyone who was prepared to walk over the Downs to hear something which in those days was not to be had at the turn of a switch. In that Organ Room a few concert performances of minor operas were given, and from these and many visits to the great opera houses of Europe came Mr. Christie’s idea to raise, here in Sussex, the standard of opera in England from the sterile commercial dust in which it then lay.’

Rudolf Bing, General Manager, Glyndebourne, 1948

Organ Room highlights

Portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, aged 14, c.1770 by Louis Gabriel Blanchet (1705-72)
Bust of Glyndebourne’s first Music Director, Fritz Busch (1890-1951)
Photographs of our founders, John Christie and Audrey Mildmay.
The paintings on display in the Organ Room are from the private collection of the Christie Family, and include examples of Dutch marine paintings and 17th-century portraits.
A pair of candelabras by André-Antoine Ravrio (1759-1814). Our Props department re-created replicas of these pieces, which have been used in stage productions of Pelléas et Mélisande (2018) and The Merry Widow (2024). A second replica pair were also created for The Moderate Soprano (2015) by David Hare, a historical play detailing John Christie and Audrey Mildmay’s marriage and the founding of the Glyndebourne Festival.