The Foremost Victorian Organ Builder
The Exhibition organ led to the contract for St George's Hall, Liverpool, where the virtuosic playing of W T Best drew large crowds, and also spread the fame of Willis as a builder still further. In a long career stretching to the end of the Nineteenth Century, Willis subsequently built the organs at the Alexandra Palace, the Albert Hall, and St Paul's Cathedral. Of the approximately 1,000 organs he built or re-built, were the cathedral instruments at Truro, Salisbury, Carlisle, Exeter, Canterbury, Lincoln, Durham, Glasgow, Wells, Gloucester, and Hereford. In addition there were a large number of concert and parish church organs of note, including the organ at Windsor Castle. The last major instrument which he personally supervised was at St Bees Priory in 1899, which he voiced himself, although approaching his 80th year.
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