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+7 846 207-07-13 Box office
+7 846 207-07-15 Customer service

17 February 2001 marked a significant day in history of Samara – the Rudolf von Beckerath pipe organ was opened in Samara State Philharmonic Hall. Ever since then, great organ music, which music lovers of Samara had hardly ever heard in live concerts, has become available to everyone.

The organ in Samara State Philharmonic Hall is a unique instrument and it occupies a worthy place among the best concert hall organs of Europe. The beauty and variety of timbres have always been the most important features for organs, and the fact that the organ in Samara has 52 timbres makes it sound like the genuine «king of musical instruments». The organ contains five departments: Hauptwerk, Positiv, Schwellwerk, Bombarden werk and Pedal. There are 3540 pipes of different lengths and volumes. The instrument has 3 manuals, a pedalboard and an electro-pneumatic control system which makes it possible to use the organ in performances of all kinds and genres.
«Harry Grodberg, a renowned organist of Moscow State Philharmonic Society and the People's Artist of Russia, was invited to consult on the organ building project»
Rudolf von Beckerath (1907-1976) was a German master organ builder. He established an organ building firm in his own name in 1949. The company's first large organ, which was built for the Musikhalle Hamburg with 59 stops, 4 manuals, slider chests and mechanical key action, was a remarkable and sensational construction. Today there are Beckerath organs in many countries. Apart from Germany they are also to be found in Australia, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Poland, India and Russia.

Rudolf von Beckerath company began working on the Samara organ in the mid-1990s. It took five years to finilize the project design. The team of engineers came from Hamburg to Samara in 2000 in order to build the instrument. Harry Grodberg, a renowned organist of Moscow State Philharmonic Society and the People's Artist of Russia, was invited to the site as a consultant. He was also the first musician to play the organ at the opening ceremony on the 17th of February 2001. Since that day, the life of the instrument has been full of glorious events. An impressive number of international organ music festivals have been held, including «The Royal Audiences». The music lovers of Samara have had an exceptional opportunity to attend concerts of such brilliant Russian and world-famous organists as Rubin Abdullin and Daniel Zaretsky, Alexey Parshin and Vladimir Khomiakov, Talivaldis Deksnis, Winfried Boenig, Ludger Lohmann, Leo Kraemer, Zsigmond Szathmary, Barbara Dennerlein, David Timm, Rhoda Scott, Guy Bovet, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Giancarlo Parodi, Marek Stefanski and many others.

The organ music subscriptions have been steadily popular with the patrons of Samara State Philharmonic Hall. The resident organist Lyudmila Kamelina has contributed greatly to the success of those programs. She also came up with the idea of creating an organ music subscriptions for children.

Yuri Saveliev, a pipe organ technician and an Honored Worker of Culture of Russia, has been in control of the Samara organ throughout the years.