Rye Wurlitzer Academy

The Rye Wurlitzer Academy is a charity (RWA) based at Rye College, part of the Rye Academy Trust, which has housed a 1925 2-manual 6-rank Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ since the late 1950’s. Originally installed at the Palace Cinema in Tottenham, this instrument is now Britain’s second oldest Wurlitzer organ and has recently been slightly enlarged to be a 2/8+2digital. The Academy was founded following the receipt of a specific donation “In Memory of the Life of Rita Akehurst” to the Friends of the Rye Wurlitzer preservation group with the wish that it be used to show some young people the theatre organ. This allowed the Founder and President of the Friends of Rye Wurlitzer, Richard Moore, to try out an idea he had had for a long time, which was to offer some form of regular teaching about the historic Wurlitzer Theatre Organ to young people, all be it originally for just a short trial period. The show goes on.