Thank You To Our Donors

Your Chapel organ is now refurbished and sounds magnificent.

Last night, 2 November 2011, 160 Old Boys and partners attended a special Organ Recital to witness its completion, hear its new and magnificent sound and be warmly thanked by the College.

The Wesley College community has eagerly awaited the eighteen months that this refurbishment has taken and looming dark clouds did not dampen the eagerness of our Old Boys who mingled on Jenkins Quad and enjoyed refreshments before the recital.

The excitement rose as guests moved into the Chapel.

Headmaster, David Gee, wholeheartedly thanked the 350 Old Boys who donated the funds for this massive refurbishment and told them "your ongoing relationship with your old school is as important to us as it is to you. You will always be an Old Wesleyan - and a cherished friend."

OWCA President Graham Percival reminded us of the story behind the Chapel and how, over a period of 14 years, the Old Boys raised 28,000 pounds for the Chapel to be built, thereby discharging their 'debt of honour' to families of Old Boys who had fallen during the war. This was finally completed in 1961. A prayer was read by Old Boy Ian Shellabear (43-45-47) and then a full congregation sat back and absorbed the resonating and beautiful sounds made by our 'new' organ and played magnificently by the College's organist, Iwona Staniszewska with soloist, Catherine Campbell singing AveMaria and O Divine Redeemer. The program finished with the very energetic and uplifting Toccata from Symphonie No 5.

Graham Devenish, from Pipe Organs WA, explained a few technical details and said, "this organ is the third largest mechanical instrument in Western Australia. From the outside, the organ may not look vastly different, but on the inside, a lot of changes have been made. It has 2,800 pipes over 37 registers and over four divisions. It houses all the families of instruments. My co-worker on this project, Tomasz Nowak, has developed the memory system - this used to have ten level memory system - it now has a 50,000 level memory system!"

He added, "we have been privileged to have worked on this instrument since the beginning of 2010 until just a few months ago. This is an instrument that we at the factory are proud of."

The Old Boys ended the evening by singing the School Hymn with much gusto.