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"Crystal Cathedral" declaring bankruptcy

Started by KB7DQH, October 21, 2010, 01:11:06 AM

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KB7DQH

This "all-glass" mega-church in Southern California apparently is experiencing financial difficulty...
and houses one of the largest pipe organs on planet earth...

Atheists on blogs all over the internet are having a field day with this story...

http://www.examiner.com/celebrity-headlines-in-national/crystal-cathedral-bankruptcy-where-will-one-of-the-worlds-biggest-organs-go

My thoughts are to get these guys to do a concert there...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33WTdVRuBUs&feature=related

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."

revtonynewnham

Hi

There have been rumours of declining attendances there for several years now - that's always going to be a problem with a ministry that is, in effect, centred around one person. 

There was an article on the organ in "The Organ" magazine a few years ago - that points out that the thing is virtually never in tune because of the sun shining through the glass walls and affecting different departments at different times of the day/seasons of the year.  It's actually 2 four manual organs "bolted together" - a fearsome beast, but designed to do a particular job in a particular building, so probably difficult to sell "as is" - and the relocation costs would be high as well.

Every Blessing

Tony

Barrie Davis

Hi

How much of it was digital? I understood that parts were.

Best wishes

Barrie

KB7DQH

#3
Yes, there are digital ranks, the OHS database does not list them, but the "real-pipe" work is considerable...

From the OHS database...
Quote# Fratelli Ruffatti.
# Current Status: extant, unaltered. (Last update 2006-05-07.)
# 5 manuals. 5 divisions. 284 stops. 270 ranks. 218 registers. 15966 pipes. 61-note manuals. 32-note pedals.
# Electric key action. Electric stop action.
# Traditional style console with a keyboard cover that can be lifted to form a music rack. Drawknobs in vertical rows on angled jambs. Balanced swell shoes/pedals, standard AGO placement. AGO Standard (concave radiating) pedalboard. Crescendo Pedal. Reversible full organ/tutti thumb piston. Reversible full organ/tutti toe stud. Combination action thumb pistons. Combination action toe studs. Coupler reversible thumb pistons. Coupler reversible toe studs.
# Additional notes.

    * Identified through on-line information from Scott Crowell. -- The Hazel Wright organ consists of the 1962 Aeolian-Skinner organ (opus 1388) from the Lincoln Center in New York City and the 1977 Fratelli Ruffatti organ built for the church's former sanctuary, the Garden Grove Community Church. The organ has two 5-manual consoles, a main console and a console in the rear (south) gallery. Organ has some digital stops that are not included in the data above. (Database Manager. 2006-05-07)


'Tis curious what stops are digital???

The Skinner pipework must be "good stuff" as I remember reading someplace about the Skinner organ installation at "Lincoln Center"... That they had sold the Skinner and had it replaced with its current instrument built in Europe someplace, and afterwards "wished they had the old organ back"
The organ at Avery Fisher Hall (formerly Lincoln Center) has just been reinstalled, removed for work done on the Hall, and the organ.....


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."