I've been playing Wersi instruments since 1990 when we bought a Beta, this was a fantastic instrument and really helped me learn the technical side of instruments. I changed to the Performer in 1998 because I had started performing a few concerts and the sounds on the Beta had become outdated. I have always preferred the sounds of the European organs over the Japanese instruments and I needed a portable instrument so I can carry it myself. At the time this limited me to the Bohm and Wersi instruments and having been used to the Wersi it was an obvious choice to persue this option. At the time the Phon-x/Performer/Pegasus range had been out around 3 years, we were at the Blackpool AOE festival and spoke to the Wersi team at the time and tried out a few instruments. I decided the Performer would be perfect, it has the added bonus of having rubberised sides so it will bounce if it's dropped.... I don't think this will do the insides much good so haven't actually tried it yet!
I was running a Performer 1 until about 3 years ago when after a few problems with it I decided to look for a new instrument. I travelled to Munich to try out the Wersi Xenios, this was never released into the UK but looked very similar to the Performer. Having just finished University I wasn't in the position to pay out £7500+ so I looked at getting another Performer, I was still happy with the sounds and I know the instrument inside and out. I remembered that my teacher, Phil Brown, had purchased one a few years previous and asked him if he still had it. It was under his bed and he hadn't used it, so I became the proud owner of a Performer 2!
I have always loved the versatility of the instruments when assigning sounds, the Beta had the ability to put any sound on any of the keyboards, including the pedal board, back when most other instruments had set sounds for set manuals. I really like the Wersi instruments, especially because they have portable organs, much easier for a girl to carry around!

Claire