ON A RECENT cold Sunday in Beijing, organ-maker Kenneth Jones was putting the finishing touches to a 2,000-pipe organ in a new auditorium at the capital's prestigious Central Conservatory of Music middle school.
'This organ has dramatic power, which you need when doing battle with a full orchestra,' says Jones, an Irishman in his 60s whose white beard and hair lend him an air of authority. 'I'm not ashamed to say it's the best instrument in China.'
Specially made for the conservatory, the unique, hand-made instrument is due to make its debut with a concert in May. It's one of the few organs on the mainland, where the Baroque art of organ playing, long associated mostly with church music, is barely known.
But the mainland is undergoing a dramatic flowering of talent in the classical music field and its conservatories are bursting with skilled and keen students, making it only a matter of time before the stately tunes of the organ will be heard more and more in concert - and in church. Coupled with a plan to build at least two large, new churches in Beijing next year, the timing couldn't be better.
Made in Jones' workshop in Bray, a seaside town just south of the Irish capital, Dublin, the organ is a remarkable musical instrument. Unlike many commercially made organs, everything was fashioned by hand. Many contemporary organs are made with electrical systems, which Jones eschews.
It occupies 100 cubic metres at the back of the stage in a brand new, custom-built auditorium, and weighs 10 tonnes. It's also a work of great artistic beauty, with pipes of copper, polished tin and gold leaf. The case is solid oak. Detail is in red and green, to symbolise artistic collaboration between the mainland and Jones' own country.