The ‘Organ Project’ – its origins, ethos & design

In 2007 the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir signed a contract with the 27 year old Raul Prieto Ramirez for a very special assignment. The audiences for organ concerts in the National Concert Hall in Madrid had dwindled to just a handful of people in recent years. So poor was the situation that the promoters were resolved to stop the series of concerts at the earliest opportunity.
Just when all hope was lost, the name of Raul Prieto Ramirez came to the attention of the authorities responsible for organising the events at the Auditorio Nacional.  Raul’s reputation for building large and appreciative audiences at his performances throughout Spain had reached Madrid, and the Directors of the National Concert Hall asked Raul to create and develop a project whose final result would be a loyal and growing audience for their organ events.

The programme developed by Raul is called the ‘Organ Project’ and it comprises a number of integrated areas:

• Three different educational activities for children, directed by Raul himself and using several collaborators.

• A series of informal concerts for interested music-lovers, linked by common ‘themes’, in which Raul plays, talks about the organ and its music and answers a wide range of questions put to him by audience members.

• A great variety of concert designs that integrate artistic light and video projection with well-developed concert programmes (agreed with the invited artist) – giving a fully-rounded annual series with sense of unity from the first to last activity of each year.

• Raul himself is also the main organist for the National Orchestra and Choir concerts.

• Raul personally oversees all aspects of promoting the organ events – planning the publicity strategies, undertaking press and media interviews, arranging the hand bills and poster designs, preparing the programme notes for all concerts, organising the lighting and other technical features used in the concerts, and building a close relationship with the newly-won audiences through the National Orchestra’s special Blog at its website.

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