New, restored, enlarged, organs, concerts and dedication recitals...

[KB7DQH]

We shall start this "barrage announcement" with news that an instrument being built for a (well, on a global scale ;) "local" church by the Pipe Organ Foundation... an organization featured elsewhere on this forum... has now been completed and has been dedicated, the inaugural concert being a couple weeks in the future...

http://www.pipeorganfoundation.org/news/announcements2.html

Announcements

Covenant Presbyterian Organ Dedication and Inaugural Concert

Organ Dedication.  The Pipe Organ Foundation is pleased to announce that the dedication of the recently completed three manual, 20 rank organ at Covenant Presbyterian church will occur at the church a 7 PM on Saturday, October 8.  The organists at the church will play at that event and there will be other music as well.  Carl and Halie Dodrill will provide basic information about the instrument and will demonstrate the various groups of pipes in the organ.  They will also show with pictures what the volunteers of the Pipe Organ Foundation did to make this instrument a reality.  Those volunteers will be especially honored that evening by the church.  Everyone is welcome to attend this event.

Inaugural Concert.  At 7 PM on Saturday, November 5, 2011, Dr. J. Melvin Butler will play the first concert on the new organ at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Issaquah.  Dr. Butler will be playing music by Bach, Vierne, Rameau, Daquin, Saint-Saens, Greene, and J.F. Wagner.  A special feature of his program will be an Avian Suite which he has assembled himself and which consists of music from three composers which is about birds (including The Swan).  The program is designed to be enjoyable, on the lighter side, and truly uplifting.

Dr. ButlerDr. Butler is Cannon Musician at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.  He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin and his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Eastman, studying with David Craighead.  A long term member of the Seattle chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he has played important roles in the Chapter's Pipe Organ Encounters and in chapter meetings where he has provided invaluable tips on hymn playing and on organ improvisation.

Detailed information about the Pipe Organ Foundation instrument that Dr. Butler will be playing can be found at this website under News and Projects.

There is no cost for this concert; a freewill offering will be taken.  Covenant Presbyterian Church is located on East Lake Sammamish Parkway at 22116 SE 51st Place, Issaquah (425 392-5532).  Questions about the event can also be directed to Carl Dodrill of the Pipe Organ Foundation (carl@dodrill.net; 206 788-7761).

And news of another ("local" on a global scale) organ dedication...

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ken/community/131470568.html

Sunday, 10/16/2011


Des Moines church to dedicate refurbished 122-year-old pipe organ Oct. 23

Oct 10 2011

Community members from Kent, Des Moines and beyond are invited to a free concert at Resurrection Lutheran Church, 134 S. 206th St., in Des Moines to dedicate the church's newly refurbished 122-year-old pipe organ.

Seattle organist Mark Andersen will play at the concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23. Anderson is the artist in residence for Daniels Recital Hall in Seattle. He has studied organ with Marcel Dupre' in Paris and E. Power Biggs in Cambridge, Mass.

The Whalley & Genung tracker pipe organ was built in 1889 for Zion Lutheran Church in Oakland, Calif. The church sold the organ in 1930 to Grace Lutheran in Visalia, Calif.

When Grace Lutheran acquired a new organ in the 1960s, the church's former pastor was called to serve Resurrection. He told the congregation they could get the organ for $200 but would have to move it to Des Moines from California.

Resurrection sent several people to Visalia to bring the organ back to the church, where it was placed in storage for several years in the church basement.

For more information, visit www.resurrection-lcms.org.

A Savannah, Georgia church celebrates its organ's restoration...

http://savannahnow.com/do/2011-10-13/trinity-united-methodist-church-launches-organ-concert-series#.TpbHi3LvauI

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Trinity United Methodist Church launches organ concert series
Posted: October 13, 2011 - 12:35am  |  Updated: October 13, 2011 - 12:44am

By Linda Sickler

While tunes such as "Tiger Rag" and "Blues in the Night" might not be heard in churches very often, the Buryin' da Blues concert is very much a special occasion. It will be held Oct. 15 at the Trinity United Methodist Church on Telfair Square.

"We just restored our organ," the Rev. Enoch Hendry said. "Our 1949 Moeller pipe organ is one of the two or three best in the city. We want to remind people that while we're a historic congregation, we're a lively and vital congregation, as well."

The Buryin' da Blues service was started by the Rev. Dr. Ralph Bailey about a decade ago. "Our education building was completely destroyed by fire," Hendry said. "There was no structural damage to the sanctuary, but there was smoke damage, and we were out of the building for almost two years.

"When we returned to the church, we had less than 50 people who came back," he said.

"As the church came out of that period, Dr. Bailey decided to do a New Orleans-style wake as a way of burying the past, the dark times, the blues, and moving ahead into a brighter future."

Bailey will be at the service and will play saxophone as part of the Wildcat Branch Dixieland Band. Other members are Bobby Godwin, Jonathan Smith, Tyler Moore, Max Chrisman and Gary Smith, Trinity's music director.

Since that first service, Buryin' da Blues has been performed at different churches around the city. "Most recently it was at Epworth United Methodist Church," Hendry said. "We decided to do another here.

"These are dark economic times and we're trying to help people see there is a brighter future," he said. "We thought this was the perfect opportunity to bury the blues one more time."

While there will be some liturgical performances, the concert is not a high church service, Hendry said. "There will be a lot of jazz music," he said. "We've got the gospel choir from First Bryan Baptist Church that is going to sing."

The Trinity United Methodist Choir also will perform. "It's going to be styled after a traditional New Orleans wake," Hendry said.

"We'll have a casket in the front," he said. "There will be some humor and storytelling, but it's going to be predominantly music."

Hubert Baker is the church organist and will play the pipe organ, as will Lester Anthony, the director of the First Bryan Baptist Church Gospel Choir.

There will be no sermon, Hendry said. "There will be an offering taken as part of the service, but it's not a worship service in the strictest sense," he said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

By coincidence, Hendry attended the first Buryin' the Blues service. "I grew up in Savannah and was home to visit family," he said. "I was really moved and affected by it then. That is at least part of the reason why we wanted to do it again."

Buryin' da Blues will open the Pipe Organ Project (POP) concert series. The American Guild of Organists (AGO) will have a recital on Nov. 14, and a Christmas concert will be held Dec. 13.

"It will be a program of seasonal music. Advent and Christmas music, carols and pop music," Hendry said. "Hubert Baker will be the organ master that evening. His performance will be the centerpiece of the service.

"The Jan. 13 concert will be the dedication of the restored organ," Hendry said. "That is going to be a concert of sacred and classical music, a much more traditional organ performance. Thomas Alderman of the Roswell United Methodist Church in Atlanta will play the organ."

The last time major work on the pipe organ had been done was in 1969 when antiphonal pipes were added. The restoration required removal of several organ chambers, re-leathering of the bellows and the replacement of some electronic components at a cost of nearly $200,000.

The organ itself is worth about $2 million. Pipe organs are becoming somewhat rare.

"Organ-based music is not a part of the musical style of new church startups," Hendry said. "If our organ hadn't been restored, it wouldn't have been worth much. We felt it was incumbent on us as good stewards to restore it."

IF YOU GO

What: Buryin' da Blues.

When: 7 p.m., Oct. 15.

Where: Trinity United Methodist Church, 225 W. President St.

Cost: Free.

Rededicated...

Pipe organ rededicated

Written by Bettina Thiel
Friday, 07 October 2011 21:43


ORANGE — After four years of careful research and more than a year without an organ altogether, the Orange Congregational Church last weekend dedicated its new — or maybe it should be called as good as new — pipe organ.

"It's a new organ using some existing pipework," said the organ builder, Ed Odell of J.H. & C.S. Odell. About 75% of the instrument is new. Accordingly, the name of the "Organ Restoration Committee" became the "Organ Renovation Committee" and finally the "Organ Committee."

The console is entirely rebuilt, as are the wind chests. In fact, Odell said, this is the first of their newer organs to use a traditional technology, that of the slider chest, which he praises for its "efficiency, reliability and durability."

Odell even gave it an opus number (649), much as composers or their publishers will number their compositions.

In doing so, they listed it as one of their own, Odell said.

Founded in 1859, the firm is the oldest continuously operating organ shop handed down in one family.

The original pipe organ in Orange was a gift to the church back in 1949. The organ, though it served its purpose faithfully for 60 years, was meant for a small country church, not the modern congregation it now serves, said Organ Committee co-chairman Brad Gesler. When the church was full it was barely audible, and some stops were not working.

It was getting to a point we had to do something drastic," Gesler said. The committee looked at several firms and settled on Odell in East Haddam. In 2008, Odell starting taking the old organ out and rebuilding it.

The congregation has been without organ for more than a year. But the sound scope of the new organ was well worth the wait.

On Sunday, the organ was dedicated at the regular 10 a.m. service, followed in the afternoon by a concert for the greater public.

The organ, which in automotive terms represents a "Cadillac" as opposed to the "Chevy" the church had before, generates quite a bit of interest among area organists, according to Gesler.

He said the new instrument allows the organist to produce a much larger tonal variety. On a recent Sunday, Gesler, who sings in the choir and faces the congregation, could see the "wow" effect reflected in people's faces after the organ had subsided. That moment was worth all the effort.

The congregation had budgeted the project to cost $315,000, but it came in about $21,000 under budget, Gesler said.

The committee had organized several musical events this past year as a way to raise money for the organ fund, including a concert with the St. Luke Steel Band and a concert with a woodwind quintet. Gesler said he anticipates they will continue to raise money until the entire bill is paid. In the Christmas season they are planning to have a Messiah sing-along.

The project has in that way opened up a "lively new music dimension for the whole community," Gesler said.

The J.H. & C.S. Odell Co. was founded in 1859 by the current principal's great-great-grandfather and his brother. As in much of the music industry, organ builders have had to adapt to many changes in their craft.

There were the electronic organs, which can produce a wide variety of sounds at a fraction of the cost of a pipe organ. They were also experimenting with different synthetic materials to replace leather, which got brittle after a few years.

Now they have found a way of tanning the hide to make a superior product that allows leather to be used to cover pallets.

The artisans who work in the shop are all highly skilled, experienced craftsmen, Odell said. They work with wood, metal and leather and must have tonal experience, he said.

In the first 70 years of the firm, it made 580 organs with a staff of 20; from 1927 until today it made 60 with a staff of six. Part of the reason was that for a few years before Ed Odell revived the company, it basically limited itself to servicing organs that had already been installed.

Electronic organs were in vogue until people found out that they have a markedly shorter life span, and cannot be rebuilt. Some of Odell's original organs, by contrast, are still in use in their original condition.

Similarly, the Orange committee had to decide whether to rebuild the old organ, get a new one or settle for an electronic one.

Electronic organs became very expensive, Odell said.

That makes his business a "highly competitive market," he said. His clients are the Episcopalian, Catholic, Lutheran, Congregational, and Methodist churches, most of them shrinking in size.

Odell and his wife were in attendance at the dedication on Sunday. He read a part of the litany of dedication, charging his opus 649 to "bring blessing and joy to all who enter here."

More to follow...
Eric
KB7DQH

[KB7DQH]

and

Ross church uses parts of two pipe organs to build one
Thursday, October 13, 2011
By Sandy Trozzo

When the electronic organ at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Ross started to fade, Ted Rybka began dreaming of having a pipe organ in the church.

A total of 1,156 pipes will produce sound. Of those, 400 are in a chamber next to the choir area, with many of them laid horizontally because they didn't fit any other way, Mr. Richards said. The upper chamber behind the cross above the altar has 756 pipes. That chamber was put in when the church was constructed 28 years ago.

"It's been so long that people didn't know there was a room up there," Mr. Rybka said. "They forgot there was supposed to be a pipe organ."

Mr. Richards was the only person hired for the project. All the other work was done by parishioner volunteers. The project cost $80,000, about $5,000 less than the cost of a new electronic organ.

"I've noticed the enthusiasm of many of the parishioners here to hear a real pipe organ," Mr. Richards said.

The dedication Mass will be celebrated at 12:15 p.m. Sunday, followed by a light lunch and an organ concert at 3 p.m. The parish is paying for a bus to bring parishioners of the two former McKeesport area churches to the dedication.

Mr. Rybka said the project "makes people happy for different reasons.

"The people in McKeesport are happy that something is being saved from their churches. People here are happy to get a pipe organ. And historians and musicians from all over the country are happy that we are doing this."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11286/1181609-54.stm#ixzz1b1H7tWhd

Churches' spirit continues through their pipe organs
By Carol Waterloo Frazier, MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS
Saturday, October 15, 2011
About the writer

Carol Waterloo Frazier is the McKeesport Daily News lifestyles editor and can be reached at 412-664-9161 or via e-mail.
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"The church buildings may not be there but the spirit of those parishes is being carried on throughout the diocese."

That`s what the Rev. Steve Kresak of Corpus Christi Parish in McKeesport said of the pipe organ and other items that were removed from Holy Trinity and St. Peter`s churches before they were demolished.

For parishioners at St. Teresa of Avila in Pittsburgh, that spirit will be piped throughout the sanctuary. Ted Rybka, director of music ministries at St. Teresa, said the church was in dire need of a new pipe organ. However, the cost of purchasing a new pipe organ — approximately $250,000 — was prohibitive.

When Rybka got word about the McKeesport churches, he contacted Kresak about the possibility of placing the organs in a new home.

"We were trying to find a home for the organs," Kresak said. "This was a real blessing because otherwise we would have had to put the organs and pipes in storage and they could have been there for a long time."

He said his parishioners "are appreciative we were able to find a home for everything" from the churches.

"Father Steve was wonderful through the whole process," Rybka said. "He was happy the instruments would be saved because he said he didn`t want anything to be destroyed. He allowed us access to come and go as necessary to get the work done, which allowed everything to go quite smoothly."

To show appreciation to the members of those former churches, St. Teresa is providing a bus to take parishioners to the Pittsburgh site Sunday for a dedication Mass at 12:15 followed by a reception and a recital by Donald Fellows of St. Paul`s Cathedral at 3 p.m. The bus will take the guests back to McKeesport after the program.

"We wanted to extend our appreciation to the people of McKeesport," Rybka said. "We wanted to do something to show them how much we appreciate what they did for us."

The organ at St. Teresa was a touring organ used by Virgil Fox in the 1970s and the church acquired it in the 1980s. "It was falling apart beyond repair," he said. "Pipe organs are so expensive to buy new so this was a great alternative for us to have this great opportunity fall into our lap."

He said the parish is fund-raising to cover the cost of the $80,000 project and they have raised much of the needed funds.

Rybka said arrangements were made in February or March to obtain the instruments. "There were a lot of people from our parish involved with getting everything moved. For two Saturdays, we had groups at the churches dismantling the organs piece by piece. The women prepared lunches for us. It was during the winter and there was no heat in the building and no water. We were able to use the Holy Trinity School building, which still had water, for the restrooms. We had probably 40 or 50 people working on that."

The work was laborious because not only were the organs and pipes removed, but so was much of the original woodwork including the original wood console from St. Peter`s, Rybka said, noting an old blower also was recovered and incorporated with the restoration project.

"We took all the wood and sanded and stained it," Rybka said of the console and other wood saved from the churches.

Not only was the wood restored, all the pipes were cleaned and repaired before they were installed in their new home.

"Dave Richards of Allegheny Pipe Organ Company in Valencia did the work for us and he did a wonderful job. He did all the restoration and it looks great," Rybka said.

While dismantling the organs, Rybka said the workers discovered they would have pipes from more than the two churches. "We realized some of the pipes were from the former St. Mary`s German church. The organ there was dismantled when that church closed and now we have some of those pipes."

Describing the St. Mary`s pipes, he said, "They are 100 years old with hand-painted scrolls. They are beautiful."

Referring to the "new" organ at St. Teresa, Rybka said, "It`s a real treasure — a very special instrument. We`ve been using it a lot this past month."

While the Pittsburgh parish has the whole organ from St. Martin de Porres, Kresak said only about a third or half the pipes from St. Peter`s are at St. Teresa. "We have the other pipes and they will be incorporated into our organ."

The two organs have special meaning to Rybka. A Duquesne native, he served as music director for four years in the early 1990s at St. Denis and St. Patrick. At that time, he had a chance to not only see the two organs but to play them.

"The organs had been redone and they were beautiful instruments. It must have been after St. Mary`s closed because the pipes from that organ were already there," he said.

Reflecting on the closing of the churches, Rybka, who has family ties to the former St. Mary Czestochowa, said, "I felt bad about the churches in McKeesport. They were beautiful buildings and rich in history. It was so sad what happened. A lot of churches everywhere have been closing and it`s sad when you have 100-year-old buildings being closed. There are a lot of pipe organs being demolished in those buildings, but we were able to save two of them. They are wonderful treasures that everyone can enjoy."

St. Teresa isn`t the only church where the spirit of the McKeesport churches will live on. Kresak said the large items from the churches as well as many of the smaller ones have found new homes.

"The bishop specifically said he wanted the windows from St. Pius for the new conference center at St. Paul`s Seminary in Crafton. The Altar of Sacrifice and two side altars as well as the pulpit from St. Martin de Porres Holy Trinity Worship Site will be in the new St. Thomas a Becket. The bells from Holy Trinity will be in a new bell tower at St. Catherine of Sweden in the North Hills and all the pews from St. Pius went to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Carnegie, which is the old St. Luke`s that was damaged in the Hurricane Ivan flood."

Other items that have been adopted by other parishes include the baby grand piano to St. Teresa of Avila and the Stations of the Cross originally in St. Mary Czestochowa went to St. Thomas Moore. The Stations of the Cross from St. Peter`s Parish will go to Corpus Christi. Smaller items such as pews have made their way throughout the diocese to various parishes.

Read more: Churches' spirit continues through their pipe organs - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailynewsmckeesport/s_762109.html#ixzz1b1L5Bsdm

Eric
KB7DQH