First Presbyterian (Charleston, South Carolina) to dedicate pipe organ...

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FYI: The Rev. Joe Marchio, a Charleston native, will perform a dedication recital for the Casavant organ at First Presbyterian Church at 4 p.m. Sunday. The recital, which includes the choir on some selections, is free and open to the public.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - First Presbyterian Church in Charleston is planning a little house-warming celebration for a friend that actually has settled into the church quite nicely already.

On Sunday afternoon, the church will formally dedicate the Casavant organ that was installed two years ago, a project undertaken after a generous offer by church members who missed seeing the organ and choir at the front of the church.

Mary Odin, the church's director of music ministries, said the dedication took a while to put together because the church wanted benefactors and others involved in the project to be there for the ceremony.

However, Odin said she's happy it took this long.

"This organ has settled in now," she said.

What she means, really, is that everyone has settled in with the nuances of the organ, which was built in Canada to the specifications of the church's musical experts.

On Sunday, when the Rev. Joe Marchio performs a recital on the organ, with the choir joining in for some hymns, it will be like hearing music from a familiar friend.

First Presby now is in the unique position of having the full use of two very different organs - church organist Fred Gaul often spends Sunday services scurrying from one to another, depending on the sound he needs.

He's not complaining.

"I like that one, too, and I hate to see it sit there," he said of the Fisk.

"Most churches don't have this luxury," Odin added.

It all started with an offer from church members John and Ruth McGee, who expressed that they missed the old organ in the front of the church, which was replaced by a huge Fisk pipe organ in 1980 that was placed at the back of the church. They offered to pay for a new organ in the front of the church.

The Clay Foundation and church members Bob and Nancy Douglas also stepped up with contributions to the project, which included structurally shoring up the front choir loft of the 1915 building to accommodate the heft of the new organ.

"We had to do that so the whole choir wouldn't fall through to the basement," Odin said. 

The 5,400-pipe Fisk is in fine working condition, but it is too large for the front of the church. Its sound is grand - sometimes a little too grand, Odin said. It can overpower the choir and produce a sound that's a bit too mighty for some hymns, such as "Sheep May Safely Graze," an Easter hymn that was played on the new organ during its first Sunday in use in 2010.

The 1,100-pipe Casavant is the delicate cousin to the Fisk. Its music can "get under" the choir, organist Gaul said.

Congregants can hear themselves sing, something Odin believes encourages them to do so.

"This one has a more mellow sound. A small child could sing with this one," Odin said. "The organ is meant to be the servant of the people."

Odin traveled to several churches in the country to hear organs before deciding on Casavant. It was a yearlong project to build the organ that included painstaking tooling of the pipes and work by a master carpenter who visited First Presby to custom design the wood case so that it would fit with the church's woodwork and complement the case of the existing organ.

Congregants noted that the new organ looks like it has always been there, Odin said.

Marchio, the visiting organist who returns to his hometown for Sunday's recital, has played the Casavant already. He also served as a consultant when the organ was being built, traveling to Canada to test it out in the shop.

Marchio's parents, Tom and Sara, are members of First Presby.

"When I come home, I take my shoes and music over and play there," he said.

Marchio, who now lives in Massachusetts, where he is a pastoral minister at a Congregational church, received a master's of divinity at Yale University after receiving bachelor's degrees in both religious studies and organ performance at The College of Wooster in Ohio.

Marchio said when he traveled to test out the Casavant, he grabbed a bag of music he thought would be a good way to test out its range.

"When I put together this recital, I realized most of the stuff is the stuff I played that day," he said.

The program includes hymns in which the congregation will be invited to sing, classical works and one piece on which his dad will sing tenor.

Marchio said he wanted a program that showcases the organ for how it is used.

"This is a church organ. This is not on the stage. The dedication should represent that," he said.

Eric

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