CHINA: A magnificent concert organ built by an Irishman and containing 2,000 pipes was inaugurated at Beijing's most prestigious music conservatory at the weekend.
Kenneth Jones conducted the orchestra himself to inaugurate the instrument and Peter Sweeney from Dublin was the recitalist.
"This organ has dramatic power, which you need when doing battle with a full orchestra. I'm not ashamed to say it's the best instrument in China," Mr Jones said.
The organ, which cost around €450,000, was designed and made in his workshop in Bray, then shipped to a new concert hall at the Chinese Central Music Conservatory.
It is a remarkable musical instrument, occupying 100 cubic metres and weighing in at around 10 tons, with front pipes of copper and polished tins, with mouths of gold leaf. The case is of solid oak.
"We decided on the colouring of red and green, with the red for China and the green - you'd never guess - for the Emerald Isle," said Mr Jones.
"The organ is the work of art within the hall. When people are waiting around or a bit bored or whatever, they should have something to look at." The organ will be used for performance and teaching.
"It's the first pipe organ in a music institution in all of China. We're very much looking forward to the creation of organ players. That will spread the culture of this musical instrument to other parts," he said.
The overall project was delayed by problems in the construction of the hall, which meant the organ's components were in storage for nearly three years.
"The climate has been a bit of a problem. The dryness has made storing the organ a problem and the dust tends to get into everything," he said.
You can sense the 2,000 individual pipes in the organ when he plays the instrument and the huge concert hall is filled with warm, baroque organ music. The sound is powerful but nuanced, sophisticated, warm and trebly.
To climb a ladder inside the intricate workings of this musical behemoth is to enter a strange new world clad with pipes. You feel like Jonah inside the whale.
"The organ is very much an artistically created instrument rather than a factory built one. There are others in other parts of China, including Beijing and Guangzhou, but they are commercially made. This organ has an integrity which the others do not have." There is no electricity used in the mechanism of the organ.
"The mechanism is the same as would be familiar to J.S. Bach and all composers up to 1900," said Mr Jones.
His company, Kenneth Jones and Associates, has supplied organs on nearly every continent over the last 34 years or so, probably around 200 in all.
Originally an engineer who studied arts and engineering at Trinity College Dublin, he worked as an engineer in west Africa but instrument building has long been his passion.
He started building organs in Africa in 1964, then returned to Ireland in 1973 to set up business in Bray.
He is Ireland's only pipe organ builder and recent or ongoing projects include Vancouver cathedral, Monaghan cathedral and St Peter's in Belfast.
He also built the largest mechanical-action organ in London - in St Peter's in Eaton Square - and the organ in the chapel of Rugby School in England. In Ireland, he constructed the organs in the National Concert Hall and Christ Church Cathedral.