Photo 1. Pastor Luke (on left) looks on as Halie and organist Jim discuss the new instrument. Volunteers Art and Myrtle listen to the discussion.
Photo 2. On the left, the newly hired structural engineer and Jim Roecker review the support system for the protruding "flower boxes" for the Great division. Foundation volunteers Bart and Steve look on.
Photo 3. Pastor Luke (center) conveys to the volunteers the enthusiasm felt at the church regarding their work on the new instrument.
Photo 4. Organist Jim Whitman shows his skills at the console of the existing instrument provided by the Foundation in 2002 for a much smaller building.
Photo 5. Jim and Halie team together to "bring down the house" with a rousing hymn.
Volunteers Visit Covenant Presbyterian
Carl Dodrill 03/25/10
On March 23, 2010, the work crew at the POF shop went to Covenant Presbyterian in Issaquah to become acquainted first-hand with the site where the organ on which they are currently working will be placed. They also went to meet key people at the church, to hear the wonderful acoustics in the sanctuary, and to understand better how the organ expansion that they are working on will improve music for Covenant Presbyterian Church.
At the door, the volunteers were met by Senior Pastor Eric Irwin and Pastor Luke Morton. Also to greet them at the church were the organist Jim Whitman, project coordinator Jim Roecker, and a structural engineer hired by the church to evaluate stressors involved in placing façade pipes.
Pastor Morton spoke briefly to the group regarding the use of the organ in the church, and he expressed gratitude on the part of the church for the volunteers who are working so diligently on the expansion and completion of the existing instrument. That instrument had been installed in the church's prior sanctuary in 2002 by the Pipe Organ Foundation as its Opus 1. It has just 8 ranks or groups of pipes whereas when the current expansion and completion of the instrument is finished, the organ is expected to have 18-20 ranks.
The volunteers went through all levels of the existing organ. They began with the blower pit below the sacristy and continued on up through the Swell chamber where the current organ is placed. In the new and enlarged instrument, the Great and Pedal divisions will be outside the Swell chamber and the Antiphonal organ will be at the back. The volunteers also heard Jim Whitman play much of Widor's Toccata from his Fifth Symphony, entirely by memory. Halie then sat down at the church's new and wonderful Yamaha piano and played with Jim a rousing hymn of the faith.
The visit gave new inspiration and vision to the volunteer crew as the volunteers returned to their posts at the Foundation shop and continued to work on the instrument that one soon day will become the property of Covenant Presbyterian Church.
See the photos of the concert in the left sidebar and click on the small images to enlarge.