June 2023

Létourneau Pipe Organs, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada; Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church is a large, welcoming ELCA congregation founded in 1908. Serving the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, the church opened its present sanctuary in 1952 with subsequent additions to the church complex to accommodate the congregation’s growth and needs. An unusually active congregation, Gloria Dei undertakes its outreach and social justice ministries enthusiastically through various environmental, housing, hunger, and advocacy initiatives.

Schoenstein & Co., Benicia, California

Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, California

It is always an honor to rebuild a historic instrument from a celebrated firm. The story of this Estey organ involves passionate advocates and smart designers. The result is an organ that has been providing a great musical benefit to the church for nearly a century.

Marceau Pipe Organ Builders, Seattle, Washington

Kent Lutheran Church, Kent, Washington

Editor’s note: The Diapason offers a feature at our digital edition—two sound clips. Any subscriber can access this by logging into our website (thediapason.com), click on Magazine, then this issue, View Digital Edition, scroll to this page, and click on each <soundclip> in the text.

I remember when . . .

Leading up to Christmas of 2019, I decided to stop maintaining organs so I could concentrate more on the administration of the Organ Clearing House, especially the management of organ sales. I met with several colleagues asking if they would be able to take on more maintenance customers, and I wrote to my clients recommending those technicians for the care of the organs I thought they would be best suited for.

Fischer: Eight Suites of 1698, Colin Booth - harpsichords. Soundboard, SBCD-222, $16.98. Available from ravencd.com and colinbooth.co.uk. 

The Cohasset Carillon at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church has shared its historical charm and magical bell sounds with the seaside town of Cohasset, Massachusetts, for nearly a century. The 57-bell, concert-pitch carillon currently boasts the most bells of any carillon in the New England area, with a G bourdon weighing in at 11,280 pounds. Past carillon players include Kamiel Lefévere, Edward “Ned” Gammons, Katherine Stevens [Mrs. E. L. Stevens], George Faxon, Earl Chamberlain, Sally Slade Warner, and Mary J. Kennedy.