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"Found a new home" and/or "rehoused"

Started by KB7DQH, November 17, 2010, 03:15:34 PM

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KB7DQH

Link here leads to a story about an Aeolian-Skinner organ laying dormant, which has found  a new home and is playable once again...  Moreover, replaced an electronic organ in its new home 8) 8) 8)

http://www.explorernews.com/articles/2010/11/17/news/doc4ce301ee25f56745988566.txt

If the "organforumadmin" scratches his head really hard, he may remember making a post about this same instrument in another forum ;D ;D ;D

QuotePosted: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 12:00 am | Updated: 9:20 am, Thu Mar 24, 2011.

By Randy Metcalf, The Explorer | 0 comments

A Northwest church has acquired, rebuilt and installed an historic pipe organ, which will be blessed and played for the first time this weekend.

The Right Rev. Kirk Smith, the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona, is expected to attend Christ the King Episcopal Church at 2800 W. Ina for its services and to bless the instrument this Sunday, Nov. 21.

Getting the project this far has been like a shuttle launch, according to Christ the King Rev. Mike Smith.

"We had the funding to move ahead with this first round of the rebuild in September" 2009, Smith said. "We were targeting a July date. Clearly they (the pipe organs) take what they take."

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, contracted the pipe organ, which is an Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1192, for construction in 1949. After years of neglect, water damage and insect infestations, the members of the Christ the King decided to buy and rebuild the organ, which has 26 ranks.

After being cleaned, tuned and rebuilt, it has taken time to get to a point where the console can be plugged in and notes played. To date, Smith has heard only one note on it, "which actually was kind of exciting."

When completed, the $130,000 organ will have 1,300 wires, 1,200 pipes, and enough circuitry and computer chips to modernize a musical instrument that dates back near the third century, BC.

Matthew Whitehouse, the church's organist and choir master, will be at the controls of all the pipes and valves. Now 28, Whitehouse is working on his doctorate at the University of Arizona. He started playing the piano when he was in the second grade. By the seventh grade, he was playing the organ.

Whitehouse fulfills his passions for both music and astronomy by composing music on the organ inspired by the cosmos. One of his pieces, "Nebulae," was played in Paris at Notre Dame and St. Sulpice.

"It's very hard to actually describe the process other than you just do it," Whitehouse said. "For me, it's very intuitive." He sits at an instrument, and writes music "pencil to paper," working through his pieces.

"I'm excited," Mike Smith said. "We've experienced, here, the same sort of decline all the main denominations are experiencing. With that organ and some community outreach things we're initiating, and some other stuff, I am beginning to see the pieces that would move us in the direction of thriving."

To help fund the project, the church is asking for $75 donations. In turn, the donor will be able to name a pipe in honor of someone in their lives.

Pipe Blessing

Christ the King Episcopal Church

2800 W. Ina Rd.

8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sunday

Eric
KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

This news story is  about a "work-in-progress" and the danger remains that funding for the moving and reinstallation of the instrument still needs to be secured...

But the redundant instrument was removed and restored, and has been promised to a new home :D

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12459:157-year-old-church-organ-finds-achill-home&catid=23:news&Itemid=46

Quote157-year-old church organ restored by bishop finds Achill home


Anton McNulty

A PIPE organ that was built by a master organ builder over 150 years ago has been saved from ruin and will once again be played for the public in its soon-to-be new home of St Thomas's Church, Achill.
The organ, which dates back to 1854, had been situated in the Church of Ireland church in Newport, where for nearly 150 years it was played in services and in concerts. However, the organ which is three metres high was left in damp and cold conditions following the closure of the church. It would have been ruined had it not been for the intervention of the former Bishop of Tuam, Richard Henderson, who decided to save the organ from further deterioration.

SOS sent out
For five years, Bishop Henderson himself worked on restoring the organ, which is now stored in his former residence in Crossmolina. However, when the bishop learned he was to be transferred to his new diocese in England, he knew he would be unable to bring the organ with him.
Bishop Henderson sent out an SOS, hoping somebody would take the organ. That appeal was answered by Willem van Goor, the organist in the historic St Thomas's Church, which is now to become the permanent home of the pipe organ.
"We are over the moon to have such an organ in St Thomas's," Van Goor told The Mayo News. "It is in good condition and is very playable ... it needs fine tuning – but that is not a major issue."
Van Goor, who has lived in Achill for nearly ten years, said the loss of the organ would have been a tragedy, and he paid tribute to Bishop Henderson for saving it. "It certainly would have deteriorated in Newport if it was left there," he said, adding that it is an object of historical significance: "There are no pipe organs like it for miles. It fits into the history of the area and will belong to the wider community."
The organ was built in 1854 by William Hill, an organ builder of some repute from London who built organs for Westminster Abbey and Manchester Catedral. It was acquired by the Newport Church of Ireland congregation following the building of their church located behind Newport House.

Final hurdle
The only hurdle now facing the organ is its move from Crossmolina to Achill. Because of its size, it will have to be dismantled. The skills of a professional organ builder will be needed. This is expected to cost in the region of €5,000, and the congregation of St Thomas's needs financial help to get this work done.

Fundraiser
The Achill Secret Garden at Bleanaskill, Achill Island, will be hosting its free annual open day on Easter Saturday, April 23, from 11am until 4.30pm. Donations for the St Thomas's Church Organ Refurbishment Fund will be taken up during the event. For more information on the Secret Garden Open Day, to which all are welcome, visit www.achillsecretgarden.com.

Three cheers for Anton Mc Nulty for writing this article and thus bringing this instrument to the attention of the world...

Eric
KB7DQH

The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

I have found yet another news article about a dying toaster which was purchased in 1980 to replace a pipe organ-- but is now being replaced-- with a  redundant pipe organ! 

http://www.timesleader.com/entertainment/One_glance_at_the_choir_loft_inside_St___06-26-2011.html

QuoteJune 26
Hitting the high notes

By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
Features Writer

One glance at the choir loft inside St. Nicholas Church in Wilkes-Barre and you see a row of pipes. That could lead you, quite reasonably, to believe the church has an old-fashioned pipe organ.



But it doesn't. At least not yet.

Those gleaming metal relics are a facade, remnants of a pipe organ that was replaced in 1980 with an electronic model that, quite frankly, has seen better days.

"Imagine if you had a 31-year-old computer," said organist Ed Loch, who has been playing the 1980 model for almost a quarter century. "This type is not made anymore. It was one of the first computerized models. It's always needing repairs, and its parts are obsolete."

In a classic case of buyer's remorse, the late Monsignor Joseph Meier "would often say to me they were so sorry they bought it," said Monsignor Joseph Rauscher, who succeeded Meier as church pastor.

For music-lovers, Loch said, the electronic organ – even before it started breaking down – was at best a CD, while a real pipe organ is a live Philharmonic concert. "It can be a good representation of a great sound, but a pipe organ is the great sound.

"Now we're going for the great sound," he said happily.

St. Nicholas parish is making arrangements – and devoting about $250,000 of a $750,000 capital campaign – to have organ builder Steve Sykes of Cedars, Montgomery County, take apart, rebuild and refurbish a M�ller pipe organ.

The instrument, built in 1921 in Hagerstown, Md., accompanied decades of hymn-singing in the former St. Casimir Church in Pittston, where the last Mass was celebrated in 2008.

The painstaking transfer involves disassembling some 1,900 pipes, including flutelike cylinders as tiny and slender as a pencil as well as towering, pillar-like structures that are 8 feet tall.

"The lowest C comes from the largest pipe," Sykes said, offering his own version of "Organ 101" as he climbed around the choir loft at the former St. Casimir on a recent afternoon.

He and his assistant, Jon Strack, politely declined to shake hands with a pair of visitors. "Ninety years of dirt and grime," Sykes said, spreading palms blackened from the work.

Dusty though the old organ may be, its pipes still sound sweet – a fact Sykes proved as he blew into one, holding it as if it were a clarinet.

"It's made from a mix of lead and tin with a little bit of nickel," he said. "You could squeeze it with your hand and collapse the pipe. That's how fragile they are.

"The more fragile they are, the more mellow the sound."

Loch, the organist, is thrilled St. Nicholas will be able to use the pipe organ and its mellow sounds – and he's not the only music-lover excited about it.

"It's like a rebirth of this instrument," longtime choir member Tina Kellar said, explaining she felt emotional when she visited the former St. Casimir and imagined how the congregation must have felt when the church closed.

"I went there and saw this beautiful organ, and I thought, I can just imagine the people hearing that for the last time and the doors closing."

"I think it will be wonderful for the area to have another great organ in the city," she said, brightening as she compared the M�ller to the refurbished Berghaus organ at St. Stephen's Episcopal Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre.

Loch hopes St. Stephen's Mark Laubach, whom he considers "the finest organist around," will give a concert on the M�ller at St. Nicholas when it is ready, perhaps in December 2012.

"I'll make a point of making myself available," Laubach said last week. "This is a big event in the life of a church.

"I think it's extremely important to support and encourage them in what they're doing. Far too many churches nowadays get rid of their pipe organs and replace them with digital instruments that may do the job initially and will sound great and be cheaper.

"But, in the long run, just like computers, anything high-tech has a shorter lifespan before things become obsolete," Laubach continued. "A pipe organ is actually a very low-tech instrument. There are some that were built in the 1400s and 1500s in Europe, and they're still working."

When the M�ller organ is reassembled, it will have 32 ranks, or sets of pipes, each of which contributes a specific sound, such as the sound of a viola or a saxophone.

The plan is for 26 of the ranks to come from St. Casimir's organ and six new ones to be manufactured by a supplier in Erie.

It's not a rush job, Sykes said, explaining the metal must "cure" for at least six months after it is poured.

It will be worth the wait, Loch said.

"You can hear the sound of a pipe organ; you can feel the sound," he said. "You become part of the experience."

"There's no comparison to the weight and sound of the real thing," Laubach agreed.

"I'm not a musician," said Rauscher, the pastor, "but I'm sure it will be wonderful."

As he packed various pipes earlier this month, Sykes said the M�ller will be reconfigured to fit the space at St. Nicholas, which is taller and narrower than the space at St. Casimir.

When it fills that space, Loch said, the sound of the pipe organ will be magnificent and well-suited for concerts as well as liturgies. "We have remarkable acoustics."
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

#3
Not a lot of meat on these bones, but an inspirational story just the same...

QuoteBy Rebecca Haines
The Carthage Press
Posted Sep 24, 2011 @ 12:15 PM
   
CARTHAGE, Mo. —

Music from a new instrument will help a local church rejoice in early 2012.

On Monday, Sept. 19, the Faith Lutheran Church welcomed a 36-rank German built tracker pipe organ with open arms. Delivered from Flint, Mich., this powerful instrument brings a 40-year experience record in worship.

Currently, the organ is under re-assembly in the church's balcony.

"We are just thrilled," said Pastor Timothy Beulow with the church. "It's an incredible med-evil contraption, and the pieces will be hoisted up and constructed to fit our church – It's just amazing."

Since the largest tracker organ in the four-state region will now reside in Carthage, members of the church hope to attract many visitors of organ lovers. Beulow said, on a personal note, his wife couldn't wait to get her fingers on the finished instrument.
The church is planning a dedicatory concert next year to help commemorate the organ.

"We hope it lasts as long as our building does," Beulow said. "We hope our great-great-grandchildren will be able to look back and enjoy this as much as we do."
On Tuesday, organ builder David Wigton of Michigan began the reassembly project by attaching a winch to the beam at the top of the church ceiling, so organ parts can be hoisted up into the balcony.

Beulow was speaking with the organ truck driver, Don Egelseer, and it was mentioned how incredible it was that people do so much work for so little margin.

"It's truly a labor of love," Buleow had said. "So many people are working so tirelessly simply because of their love of great hymn singing to the glory of God. We had an incredible outpouring of offerings to pay for the organ, both from our own congregation, and from friends around the country who wanted our great organist to have this instrument on which to glorify God. Even the truck driver, Don, the pastor's cousin from Wisconsin, when he heard about the organ, offered to donate his time and the use of his semi, asking us only to cover the fuel cost."

http://www.carthagepress.com/news/x1214496442/Local-church-welcomes-organ


More meat...

http://www.carthagepress.com/lifestyle/family/x1987742862/Pipe-organ-the-pride-and-joy-of-Faith-Lutheran

Quoteipe organ the pride and joy of Faith Lutheran

By Rich Brown
The Carthage Press
Posted Jan 13, 2012 @ 08:38 AM
   
CARTHAGE, Mo. —

If you ask Tim and Sarah Buelow to count the 2011 blessings for them and their church, the Faith Lutheran pastor and his wife would undoubtedly list pipe organ among them.

Although delivery of the two-story Bosch Pipe Organ was made to the Carthage church last September and fine tuning continues to take place, excitement over the new addition has yet to fade.

"There are 1,300 pipes and each pipe has to be individually voiced with a couple of adjustments," the Rev. Buelow said. "The man making the adjustments was called back to his electrical engineering job at Michigan State University, so he comes back when he can."

Very few people are qualified to do the fine tuning.

"Up until the end of the 19th century, a pipe organ like this was the most advanced piece of engineering that man had invented," Buelow said. "When you think about all these connections and interwoven pieces, it is just an engineering marvel."

Sarah Buelow, who serves as the church organist, agrees.

"It is like having a live orchestra instead of just an electronic one like we have had," she said. "The pipe organ is much more inspiring. It is like getting live feedback, whereas with the electronic organ I don't get any feedback and don't know what my audience is hearing. I can hear the pipes talking to me."

She added that while most churches are going away from organs, there has been a bit of a renaissance with pipe organs.

"We have suggested  that the Carthage Chamber of Commerce put this on its list of local destinations because as a tracker organ this is unique," she said.

Faith Lutheran bought the organ from Redeemer Lutheran Church in Flint, Mich.

To say the Buelows were overjoyed at getting such a musical marvel would be a huge understatement.

"The pastor at that Michigan church said the organ had been on their insurance policy for $750,000 and all we had to pay was $25,000 for the organ and $25,000 to have it moved and installed," the Rev. Buelow said.

The organ was made in Kassel, Germany, in 1971 and bought directly from that site by Redeemer Lutheran parishioners, who were looking for the best quality German-made organ they could find.

"Organs can last 300-plus years and this one is only about 40 years old," Buelow said. "When you combine this engineering marvel of all of these wonderful things that God gave us in creation and the agility that God gave the human mind, you have something to give praise back to God."

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=355065&paper=61&cat=104

QuoteNew Sound for One Local Church
St. Andrews Episcopal Church welcomes new organ with Oct. 23 concert.

By Maya Horowitz
Tuesday, October 18, 2011    

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Burke depends on its organ to lead the congregation in worship and its old organ wasn't cutting it.

"The organ we had before was so mushy, it was hard to sing along," said Brian McCurdy, a parishioner.

So they upgraded their musical machinery, from a 15-year-old electronic organ to a refurbished pipe organ donated from another church.

"It has 46 ranks of pipes," said Jay Wilcox, a parishioner and organist. "For each key on the keyboard there has to be one pipe. That's right around 2,700 pipes, each one of which is individually tuned and the sound is adjusted to be optimal for the room that it's in."

Wilcox, who has been playing the organ for 42 years, explained that there is a separate keyboard played with the feet on an organ.

"You have to have both hands and both feet while you're playing," said Wilcox. "It requires a lot of coordination."

Organs are known for the variety of sounds they can produce and this new organ is capable of creating a wider ranger of music than the old one.

"This organ possesses a great dynamic range in terms of how loud and how soft it can play," said McCurdy. "It has a lot of different sounds and effects it can make. It's capable of the grandiose organ sound because it's an actual pipe organ not simulated electronic."

"This organ has a lot of different capabilities, sounds that are flutelike, oboelike or clarinetlike and much fuller sounds like typical organ sounds," said Wilcox. "It's a larger than average parish type organ. It's designed to be able to play a broad range of repertoire from different countries."

Wilcox noted that organs developed different sounds as they came from different countries.

"Our organ is primary German and English but has the ability to play French music idiomatically," said Wilcox.

"Getting a new organ is always an exciting time in the life of the parish," said Interim Rector Gary Goldacker "Particularly so in the case of a parish that depends on the organ for its music. It's the primary musical instrument in the building."

"The organ is just responsible for leading the congregation in all the singing," said McCurdy. "Now we can tell when to start singing when to stop singing. Hopefully, it will bring more people to our church. The most important thing is to impact the worship service."

The congregation is located in Burke. "Fairfax County is a great place to live," and McCurdy said "A lot of people who go to this church are people who have lived in the area for 10, 15, 20 years. I think a lot of people enjoy the area. That goes without saying."

To celebrate their new organ, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church is having an organ dedication concert on Sunday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m. Dr. J. Reilly Lewis, the founder and artistic director of the Washington Bach Consort and the artistic director of the Washington Cathedral Choral Society will play.

"We are incredibly fortune to have Reilly Lewis, a phenomenal organist," said Wilcox. "He's very inspiring to listen to. We're giving him an opportunity to do something off the beaten path. He's going to playing French organ music."

"This gives us a greater opportunity to present music programs to the whole community and we will begin with that on Oct. 23," said Goldacker.

McCurdy said it is the church's intention to do three or four concerts a year and to raise money through benefit concerts to bring in other groups. They have set up an organization, Friends of the Music and Arts, to promote their goals. To learn more, go to standrews.net/friends-of-music-and-arts.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church is located at 6509 Sydnestricker Road, Burke, VA, 22015. The number there is 703-455-2500.

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

http://chickashanews.com/local/x553404550/-Re-cycled-Reuter-pipe-organ-finds-new-home

QuoteOctober 20, 2011
"Re-cycled" Reuter pipe organ finds new home

Article Submitted

— On Sunday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m., First Presbyterian Church in Clinton will host a pipe organ dedication service and organ concert in their sanctuary at 700 Gary Boulevard. Their recently-installed Reuter pipe organ was originally built in 1946 for the First Presbyterian Church in Anadarko.

With the closing of the Anadarko Presbyterian Church, the organ needed a new home.  Through the generosity of Indian Nations Presbytery and the Anadarko Presbyterian Church, Clinton First Presbyterian Church was given the organ.  Mark McCrary, organ technician in Oklahoma City, who has serviced this organ for years, directed the removal of the organ from its original home and installed it in its new place in time for Easter worship this year.  Scheduling issues kept the dedication and recital on hold until now. 

At last, on Reformation Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011, at 4 p.m., the Clinton First Presbyterian Church will officially introduce its "re-cycled" organ with area artists playing selections of their choice, followed by a community soup supper in the Fellowship Hall.

Reuter Pipe Organ of Lawrence Kansas has built many instruments for western Oklahoma.  Peace Lutheran in Bessie Oklahoma installed a "sister" to this organ in 1945, which is still in excellent working order.

Musicians scheduled to play for this dedication and recital are: Loralee Cooley, church musician at Clinton First Presbyterian; Sue Lindley, organist and music director at Cordell First Presbyterian; Joyce Adams Curtis, of the SWOSU music faculty; Sheila Litsch, SWOSU music faculty emeritus; Owen Reid, organ student and musician at First Methodist in Weatherford; Erin Hanson, senior piano major at SWOSU, who hails from Chickasha, and serves as substitute musician at Clinton and Cordell Presbyterian churches; and possibly Kaelynn Kitterle, second-year piano student and 6th-grader at Washington Elementary School, Clinton. 

The event is free and open to the public.  The soup supper following the dedication and recital is a gift from the church, and all are welcome to come enjoy the food and fellowship.
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

Two more "rehoused" instruments in the news...  Well, they still need to be installed :o

http://www.memphis-umc.net/news/detail/1249

QuoteUnited Methodist connection leads to pipe organ donation
10/25/2011

Union Avenue UMC's Moller pipe organ has found a new home at Memphis Theological Seminary. Submitted photo

Skilled craftsmen made sure each Moller organ pipe had the correct tone, color, transparency and timbre. Submitted photo

By Cathi Johnson, Vice President of Advancement,
Memphis Theological Seminary

NOTE: This article first appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of The Lamp, the magazine of Memphis Theological Seminary.

Memphis Theological Seminary is located in mid-town Memphis on five acres at the corner of East Parkway and Union Avenue. Only three blocks away, one of the oldest and finest organs in the South silently rested in the sanctuary of Union Avenue UMC.

Installed in 1924, this Moller pipe organ has been carefully repaired and restored over the years. A new console was customized and added in 1978. It has both delighted and inspired audiences and congregations with music from its 27 ranks of pipes for more than 80 years.

Over the past decade, Union Avenue UMC has struggled with declining membership and increasing financial woes. Earlier this year, a difficult decision was made to sell the building and find a new home for the cherished organ. 

As a testament to the importance MTS plays in preparing faith leaders for church and lay ministry in this community, city and region, and in particular for the United Methodist Church, the Union Avenue congregation and the Memphis Conference donated the Moller organ to MTS to become an integral part of the free-standing chapel, which will be built on the MTS campus within the next one to two years.

The chapel will be designed to provide maximum acoustical benefit for the organ. In addition, the organ may be the centerpiece for a new certificate or degree program in church music. 

About The M.P. Moller Organ Company

Established in 1875, The M. P. Moller Organ Company was once one of the largest makers of pipe organs in the world. In the company's lifetime, it built more than 12,000 organs of imported woods, metals and animal products from around the world. Skilled craftsmen made sure each pipe had the correct tone, color, transparency and timbre.

Fathers passed on to their sons the skills involved in building the custom-made organs. Moller organs were installed at West Point, the U. S. Naval and Air Force Academies, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Lincoln Center. Even the chapel at Camp David has a Moller organ, which was dedicated in 1991 to President George H. W. Bush. The following year, the plant was shut down because of increasingly bitter labor relations. It never reopened, but left an amazing musical legacy to the world.

According to Greg Koziel, nationally-acclaimed organ builder formerly employed by the Moller Company, "If you were to try to replace this organ, you could expect to spend at least $550,000 and you wouldn't be getting the same quality of materials and music."

There are times when music can express what words cannot. What could be grander than a fine pipe organ to stir the soul and heal the heart!   We invite you to be seated on the front row when the old Moller organ is played once again and its chimes and pipes are ringing to the glory of God.

And...

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/oct/22/no-headline---ev_organ/

QuoteEVANSVILLE — St. Paul's United Church of Christ has reason to celebrate Christmas a little early this year thanks to some unforeseen circumstances.

The church recently received a 1963 Casavant tracker organ as a gift from the now-defunct Sacred Heart Kenwood Convent in Albany, N.Y.

"It's such an incredible gift," said the Rev. Lynn Marino. "It all came into place in an incredible way so it seems like it was destined to be ours.
Darryl Smith / Special to Courier & Press St. Paul's United Church of Christ received an organ Saturday morning. John Schreiner, an organ builder from New York, delivered the disassembled giant to Electro Lab Services, which is owned by St. Paul's parishioner Bob Dreier, on Fulton Avenue where it will be stored temporarily.

Photo by Darryl Smith

Darryl Smith / Special to Courier & Press St. Paul's United Church of Christ received an organ Saturday morning. John Schreiner, an organ builder from New York, delivered the disassembled giant to Electro Lab Services, which is owned by St. Paul's parishioner Bob Dreier, on Fulton Avenue where it will be stored temporarily.
Darryl Smith / Special to Courier & Press Parishioners from St. Paul's United Church of Christ gathered Saturday morning to unload a disassembled organ they purchased from a convent in New York. Organ builder John Schreiner who contacted University of Evansville organist and professor of music emeritus about the availability of the organ, delivered the instrument.

Photo by DARRYL_SMITH

Darryl Smith / Special to Courier & Press Parishioners from St. Paul's United Church of Christ gathered Saturday morning to unload a disassembled organ they purchased from a convent in New York. Organ builder John Schreiner who contacted University of Evansville organist and professor of music emeritus about the availability of the organ, delivered the instrument.
Darryl Smith / Special to Courier & PressSt. Paul's United Church of Christ received an organ Saturday morning. John Schreiner, an organ builder from New York, delivered the disassembled giant to Electro Lab Services, which is owned by St. Paul's parishioner Bob Dreier, on Fulton Avenue where it will be stored temporarily.

Photo by DARRYL_SMITH

Darryl Smith / Special to Courier & PressSt. Paul's United Church of Christ received an organ Saturday morning. John Schreiner, an organ builder from New York, delivered the disassembled giant to Electro Lab Services, which is owned by St. Paul's parishioner Bob Dreier, on Fulton Avenue where it will be stored temporarily.

The organ's journey to Evansville began in August when Douglas Reed, professor emeritus of music at the University of Evansville, traveled to the East Coast to visit friends. Reed first got wind of the organ's availability after an impromptu run-in with John Schreiner, an organ builder in the Albany area. Schreiner had worked with Reed installing organs at First Presbyterian Church and the University of Evansville's Neu Chapel.

"It was just a completely random thing," Reed said.

Schreiner told Reed the convent, which closed due to lack of personnel, was looking to give away its two-story mechanical pipe organ to someone who needed and would appreciate it.

Reed informed St. Paul's Director of Music Barbara Waite, who said the church had been looking to replace its worn electro-pneumatic organ. Waite traveled to Albany at the end of August to look at the organ, and upon seeing it said, "This is a miracle."

Waite said a low-estimate of the organ's value is in the range of $250,000 to $300,000.

"And that's being conservative," said Waite. "That's why we call it a miracle."

Reed said if they started over, building and designing the organ would cost around $500,000, most of which goes into labor since these instruments take over a year to build.

St. Paul's current organ was in installed in the 1940s with a price tag of $8,500.

St. Paul's didn't accept the gift free of charge. They made a "sizable" donation to the convent before it closed, Waite said. She didn't disclose the amount but said it was only a fraction of the organ's true value.

After several months of planning, Reed flew to Albany on Oct. 10 to assist Schreiner in dismantling the 18-foot-tall organ. With a handful of workers, the two organ aficionados spent the following week, working 10 hours a day, breaking down the instrument and packaging its nearly 3,000 parts.

Schreiner rented a truck Wednesday and drove the nearly 1,000-miles to Evansville, arriving Friday. Schreiner and Reed, along with members of St. Paul's, spent Saturday morning unloading the organ into a climate-controlled storage room at Electro Lab Services, Inc. on Fulton Avenue. The business is owned by church member Robert Dreier, who maintains the church's current organ.

Schreiner compared reassembling the organ to a "jigsaw" puzzle. He was thankful none of the pieces were glued together, making it a straightforward project. He used a mechanical lift to move some of the heavier parts of the instruments, like the eight-foot solid oak pipes. Workers used a Shop-Vac to vacuum almost 50 years of dust from the organ.

The organ could remain in storage up to a year while church leaders discuss possibly renovating the church. Schreiners plans on returning to Evansville when the time comes to install the organ, a process which will take up to two weeks he said.

Once installed, the organ will enhance the church's hymn singing in their traditional worshipping service and allow the church to hold concerts, said Waite. The mechanical pipe organ is more acoustic than the electro-pneumatic organ and more durable.

"Hopefully people will appreciate it as a step-up and something that will last us a hundred years," Waite said.

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

KB7DQH

http://www.wabi.tv/news/25010/rededication-ceremony-of-105-year-old-organ

QuoteRededication Ceremony of 105-year-old Organ

by Meghan Hayward - November 6th 2011 05:48pm - Read more Local News

Old Town - There was a special rededication ceremony in Old Town Sunday.

The Holy Family Catholic Church in Old Town acquired a 105-year-old organ from St. Mary's Church in Orono.

That church closed.

Members of the church are happy to be preserving a piece of history and say it's a musical treasure.

The pipe organ will be joining the church's electronic organ and piano.

" A pipe organ is a traditional, classical church organ and it is a very majestic sound and it's quite a different sound from the electronic organ. Although electronics can very much imitate the sound of a pipe organ. There's nothing quite the same as the acoustic pipe organ itself."

The church plans to use the pipe organ for special occasions, like at Christmas, Easter and for

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."