Oxford Festival of the Arts announces a series of silent films with improvised music on the grand Eule Organ (with its unique fantastical and colourful sound-world, with 45 stops over four manuals and pedals – including Physharmonica – free reeds sounds, and a Tuba which requires its own blower, owing to the pressure required to support such a big sound!) at Magdalen College antechapel.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) follows Christine Daaé, a young singer at the Paris Opera House who becomes the obsession of a mysterious masked figure dwelling beneath the theatre. Known only as the Phantom, the disfigured genius manipulates events from the shadows—coaching Christine’s voice, terrorizing the new opera managers, and committing murder to advance her career. When Christine discovers his true identity, she becomes trapped between fear and compassion, while her suitor Raoul races to save her. As the Phantom’s desperation grows, the opera house descends into chaos, leading to a dramatic final confrontation in the catacombs below Paris.

David Bednall is published by Choral Music Publishing, Oxford University Press, Boosey and Hawkes, Faber, and Novello. He is Choral Director of Clifton Cathedral, Musical Director of Bristol Bach Choir, Bristol Chamber Choir and Chew Valley Choral Society, alongside an extensive freelance career. He was previously Organ Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and then at Gloucester Cathedral, Assistant Organist at Wells Cathedral, Sub Organist at Bristol Cathedral and has improvised on live radio, and performed extensively in the UK and abroad, including at Notre-Dame de Paris – and even was stunt organist on Dr Who! His compositions are widely performed, recorded, and broadcast on BBC Radio and Classic FM. David’s St Mark Passion was commissioned for the BBC Singers in 2025.

£16.96