Europe’s organ treasury has been a testing ground for organ builders from homeland and abroad. Partly because of this, they could evolve to a level that commands worldwide respect regularly. Over the past decades organ players have also been able to promote the Dutch organ art abroad, through which foreign organ players and connoisseurs found their way to the Netherlands.
But not only in the Netherlands, throughout Europe, the organ is a unifying social factor. This unique cultural heritage, in which art, arts and crafts and handicraft merge, should not only be preserved as much as possible, but also be used permanently. The position of the organ art in the national and international music world should therefore be strengthened by all possible means. Literally and figuratively speaking, this is about a costly affair, which requires a firm platform in managerial and financial sense. A platform that needs to be enforced and built up continuously, because of changing circumstances. This requires from all involved parties constant attention and commitment, which can only be applied together.
To achieve this goal, NIvO undertakes activities in the sector of inventory, education, coordination, and promotion. The publication of the encyclopedia ‘The Historical Organ in the Netherlands’, is a major step in the direction of identification and promotion of the Dutch historical organs. Now this release is an indispensable basis for a new, European-wide activity, involving the new media too: the realization of an organ platform for the 21st century.