ST JOHN’S NEW ORGAN

Our new organ was the cover feature in the June issue of The Diapason. View the feature here .

Beautiful rendition of the new organ by Alison Kolesar.

Alongside our liturgy, one of the things that makes St John’s and the Episcopal church distinct is a rich history of music in worship, most of it led and supported by a pipe organ. Our tradition has a wealth of hymns – stirring, reflective, joyful, and plaintive – designed to be sung to organ accompaniment. While piano music may be lovely, the organ as a wind instrument, capable of mimicking the sound of an orchestra, has an affinity with our own breathing and is capable of sustained sound that fills the space, feeds us emotionally, and draws us into worship.

Our previous organ was built in the 1920s and refurbished in the 1960s. A plaque on the prior organ console (which is preserved) honors the generous gifts of those earlier parishioners. That instrument had served us well, but age revealed serious problems and limitations. It turns out that repairing it would have actually been more expensive than building new. Our new organ, built with modern pipe organ designs and materials, will serve us well for at least another century.

Jonathan Ortloff, the craftsman whom designed and constructed our new organ, specializes in building instruments that support congregational singing (click here to view some of Jonathan’s work on his Facebook page). The new organ at close to 800 pipes has a range of sounds and expressions that the previous organ was not able to produce. The new instrument, designed especially for our space, enables us to expand our musical programming, building on our 20 years of summer concerts and other community music events, and will be used for teaching young organ students, while continuing to bring emotional depth to our worship.

Thank you to all who have pledged and donated to our new organ!

Click here to view all of the photos in the Ortloff Organ Company: Opus 4 Facebook Album.

Click here to donate to the cost of our new organ.