Damon Cox

On Sunday 2^nd August, we were delighted to hold our UK Young Theatre Organist of the Year Competition (YTOY) 2025 at London’s renowned Musical Museum, at Brentford, home to the splendid 3/12 Wurlitzer that had originally been at the Regal Cinema in Kingston-upon-Thames.

The whole weekend had a wonderful atmosphere, much enhanced by past entrants from over many years attending, making it a real YTOY family get-together, including our 2015 winner, Declan Poole, who had just returned from his success winning the ATOS Young Theatre Organist Contest in America.

We were fortunate to have three top theatre organists kindly giving their time to support the contest, David Ivory (chairman), Byron Jones BEM and Andy Quin, who also treated us a short but breathtaking performance on the Steinway grand piano currently on loan to the museum.  Our compere, Tom Horton, himself a former YTOY winner, encouraged and relaxed all of the entrants with his friendly banter and also treated us to a short medley at the Wurlitzer whilst the judges made their lengthy deliberations.

The standard of playing was very high, with 15 year old Oscar Battle winning the coveted title and the right to wear the solid silver Chain of Office.  Runner Up, Jack Morton, was awarded the Len Rawle MBE Memorial Award, a trophy given at the judges’ discretion to someone they feel shows great musicality and promise.

All of us at the Wurlitzer Heritage Trust would like to thank everyone who so kindly supported this weekend, and all of the entrants, all of whom are winners in our eyes, because it has always been the taking part that counts the most with this event.

Scroll through our photos below.

For anyone interested the last ATOS newsletter can be downloaded here.

Last Sunday saw the building formerly known as the Granada Tooting, open to the public as part of Open House, London. As usual the Wurlitzer console was brought up in full view, attracting a lot of attention from the public. We continue to work with the management regarding the safeguarding of this very important instrument, and will share any further updates once action is taken, especially regarding the asbestos in the organ chambers.

Dissolution of the London & South of England Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS) and the creation of The Wurlitzer Heritage Trust 

As Chapter members are aware, the committee consulted with them regarding the committees desire to cease our association with the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS), close the old charity and form our own, new, independent Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission for England and Wales.  The membership approved the change and so the new charity has now been registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales.  We are now working to dissolve the old charity, transfer our assets across to the new charity, create a new website and everything else that goes with changing an organisation’s structure, governance and name. The new charity name is The Wurlitzer Heritage Trust.

What does this mean to you?

Our programme of Woking concerts will continue as published, under the name The Woking Wurlitzer, notwithstanding unforeseen circumstances. The same volunteers will still be involved. We own the Woking Wurlitzer outright.

If you are a Full National ATOS member, you will need to renew directly with the USA, not via WHT.  To access the membership page of the USA site please click HERE.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of the current trustees, details of which you may find HERE. 

Sign up for our Wurlitzer Heritage Trust/Woking Wurlitzer e-newsletter

We are looking to increase our use of email to send newsletters.  This saves a lot of time, cost and is perhaps more environmentally friendly.  If you would like to join the e-mailing list, and it is free, please click HERE to sign up.

Donations in memory of Len and the video of his funeral

The Rawle family has chosen for any donations you may wish to make in memory of Leonard Rawle to go to ‘Music for All’.  The charity makes the transformative power of music accessible to all, something which was massively important to Len.

Donations can be made via here.

The video recording of the service may be viewed on YouTube here.

Len Rawle MBE Tribute Show 16th November 2024 at 2.30pm

Len Rawle MBE Tribute Afternoon.  For over a half a century, the Rawle family were synonymous with the world of the theatre organ, both here in the UK and all around the world.  Highly regarded as one of the world’s best players and top theatre organ restoration experts, which included installing our Woking Wurlitzer, Len’s passing leaves a big hole in our world of music so, one year after his passing, we present a celebration of his life and work, featuring organists closely associated with him:- International player and publisher of Keyboard Cavalcade, Michael Wooldridge; The Welsh Wizard Byron Jones BEM and one of the UK’s most prolific award winning composers and close friend to Len, Andy Quin, along with the two Richards, Moore and Cole, plus lots of photos, memories and live music.  This will be a very special afternoon in the life of UK theatre organ.

We need your support in the following ways:

• Trustees.  You would need to be registered as a trustee of the charity, be able to support the organisation and attend committee meetings (either in person or virtually, e.g. via Zoom).
• Woking concert set up and take down.  We would particularly welcome local people who can regularly help with this or pop into the centre when required as none of the committee live in Surrey, let alone Woking!
• Public Relations. We would welcome somebody who is familiar with website management, Facebook, posting our concerts and events on websites and liasing with local press and other publications.

If you think you can help or wish to learn more then please contact one of the WHT trustees.