Free Organ Concert on Restored 1875 Hook & Hastings Opus 801

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross’ enormous 1875, 101-rank, E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Opus 801 pipe organ will once again play following an extensive restoration during the overall renovation of the Cathedral. More than 2,000 of the instrument’s 5,300+ pipes were removed and cleaned off-site along with other work. After remaining silent during the two-year interior renovation of the Cathedral, the historic Opus 801 will now sound again. 

Leo D. Abbott, FAGO, Ch.M., Music Director Emeritus of the Cathedral, will perform the first organ concert on Opus 801 following its restoration on Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 3 p.m. on the occasion of the external, patronal feast of the Cathedral—the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. 

A suggested donation of $25 (or $15 for students and seniors) will be gratefully accepted to benefit the Organ Restoration Fund.

About the Organist

Leo Abbott, Music Director Emeritus of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, is a graduate of the St. Paul Choir School, Cambridge, and the Chaloff School of Music, Boston. His teachers include Theodore Marier, George Faxon, Clarence Watters, and Flor Peeters in organ; Naji Hakim in improvisation; and Julius Chaloff in piano. He holds the Fellowship and Choirmaster certificates of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), has won first prize in several international and national competitions, and was a finalist at the Grand Prix de Chartres in 1984.

In 1986, Leo was appointed music director and organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston. Mr. Abbott has performed throughout the United States and in France, Belgium, and Ireland, and for conventions of the AGO and the Organ Historical Society. He has performed at Notre-Dame and Saint-Sulpice, Paris in 2010 and 2018.