A new director of music was installed and a new organ dedicated at a special service at St Mary’s on the Harbour in Castletown on Friday.
Stephen Jones gave a ‘superb’ recital said vicar Reverend Canon Dr Jules Gomes, who led the service with Canon Philip Gillespie.
Guests included Derbyhaven golf course owner Philip Vermeulen, who is funding the position of director of music.
One thing Stephen, 39, is likely to find easy to adapt to is the challenging Manx climate, because his last post as director of music was for two years in Harstad, Norway, which is north of the Arctic circle.
Prior to that, he was organist and music teacher for 10 years in two other areas of Norway: Loppe and Luroy.
Before the Nordic adventure, he graduated from the Royal Holloway University of London with a degree in music and mathematics in 1997, and was then organist attached to churches in Britain.
He applied to Castletown because of the potential.
He said: ‘I want to communicate a passion for music.
‘I want to try to involve others, to draw people into church concerts, the music and choir.
‘I am encouraging people to engage with the musical life of the church.’
Friday was the first glimpse of how his presence can have an impact on the local scene, and kicked off a series of monthly concerts.
‘It will hopefully involve other people,’ he said. ‘We can open that space [in the church] up for anybody to use as an opportunity to perform.’