Organ matters - Organs matter!

QuoteFOR music outside the box, see Nathan Avakian at Malvern Town Hall this week.

The young American organist, 20, will play an intriguing mix of contemporary pop alongside new arrangements of composers such as Mancini, Brubeck and "all the Gershwin standards" on the hall's theatre organ.

Some prize-winning contemporary youth silent films will also screen while he plays the instrument.

Avakian grew up in Portland, Oregon, and studies theatrical lighting design in New York. The Theatre Organ Society of Australia invited him to tour after he won the American Theatre Organ Society's 2009 competition.

"I've had this musical interest since age four," he said. On visits to a restaurant with pipe organ entertainment, "the other kids would be up dancing and I'd be leaning over the rail, watching the organ and organist play". He began playing aged 11 and says he loves the pipe organ as "it's more capable than people assume".

Music Outside The Box will be at Malvern Town Hall, corner Glenferrie Rd and High St, today, Wednesday, July 27, 7.30pm. Tickets at the door: $27/$10, students under 18 free. Phone: 9563 2927.

See a preview of Nathan Avakian playing here  http://www.avakiancreativeworks.com/ (http://www.avakiancreativeworks.com/).