Colleagues!

I love the metropolis of Chicagoland and the treasure trove of Pipe Organs that it contains!  Nothing gives me more pleasure than hearing them and singing with them surrounded by my colleague friends.  I am writing today to ask of you a favor.  I am chair of the Organ Historical Society National Convention which will be held here in Chicago in July of 2012.  First, I sincerely hope you will join us at the convention!  Second, might I ask you to each invite one friend to join us from July 8 to 13 here in Chicago?  What will be offered?  Let me entice you!

We will hear two magnificently restored E. M. Skinners; one at First Methodist in Oak Park, played by the amazing Ken Cowan, and the second at the Music Institute in Chicago in Evanston.  We will hear area native Nathan Laube play at the heroic  Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, and also hear the Fisk at St. Chrysostom’s in Chicago.  We will see stunning venues like North Shore Congregation Israel, Emmanuel Episcopal in La Grange and Divine Word Chapel in Techny with its unique, literally, Wiener organ.  Chicago treasure, David Schrader will perform a pops concert at Orchestra Hall, and we will have an opportunity to hear the Estey Organ with its “cash register” console in the opulent environs of the American College of Surgeons.  We will end the week traveling to Jasper Sanfilippo’s stunning home for a concert on the world’s largest Theater Organ!

We will also hear a magnum opus of Richard O. Whitelegg, the Tonal Director of the Möller Organ Company, the 1935 four-manual instrument in Carl Schurz High School.  If you do not know this instrument, it is in an award-winning Prarie-Style building on the National Register of Historic Places, has an auditorium that seats 1,800, with three seconds of reverberation time, and the organ boasts a four-rank Fourniture, a five-rank Cornet and a four-rank Harmonics stop (complete with Septième!) on the Great alone!  Speaking of very special organs, we will see the beautifully restored Hook & Hastings at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Valparaiso and a very rare and late three-manual Hinners (yes, an Illinois builder!) as well.  We will hear the oldest organ in the city of Chicago; as well as an organ that was played each Sunday by Paul Manz.  A remarkably pristine Kimball organ, built right here in Chicago, will be heard as well in the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Winnetka.  We will also hear new organs by Pasi, Buzard, Berghaus and others.

For our guests from around the country, we will feature some of our finest local players including Wolfgang Rübsam, John Sherer, Cathryn Wilkinson, Stephen Schnurr, Derek Nickels, Elizabeth Naegele among many others.  We will also have the opportunity to hear young players like the up-and-coming Nicholas Bideler, Adam Gruber and Madeleine Woodworth.  Each organist will demonstrate the unique colors and potential of each instrument.

You will not want to miss this golden opportunity!  I hope you will agree, you will also want to share it with your friends!  For further information, please go to the convention website at  HYPERLINK "http://www.organsociety.org/2012/" http://www.organsociety.org/2012/.  You can also follow us on Facebook, the address is

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Organ-Historical-Society-National-Convention-2012-Chicago/146518738762037

I hope you will join us!

All we need is YOU!

Dennis Northway, 2012 OHS Convention Chair