Organ Historical Society Convention in Western Massachusetts

I spent June 28 through July 2 in western Massachusetts at the 60^th annual Organ Historical Society (OHS) convention along with 300 other people who love organs.  It was a chance to connect and reconnect with good friends and to see and hear 26 organs played by skilled organists.  The mission of the OHS is to celebrate, preserve, and study the pipe organ in America, in all its historic styles, through research, education, advocacy, and music.

We visited organs at Mount Holyoke College, 22 churches, and a Jewish Synagogue.  Each organist includes a hymn in her/his program, so the churches and auditoriums are filled not only with beautiful organ music, but also with robust singing.  The convention attendees ride busses to the various venues and bus rides are often a place to meet new friends and catch up with current friends.  We all received a book that lists the organists’ programs and the organ’s builders and stop lists.  The organs were created anywhere from 1850 to 2014, with more than half of them built in the 19^th Century.  Six of the organs were built by William A. Johnson, five by Ernest M. Skinner, and five by Casavant Frères.  Barbara Owen gave a lecture about the organ builders of the area with a special focus on William A. Johnson, who was the first organ builder in the area. Fourteen of the organs had two manuals, five had three manuals, four had four manuals, and three had one manual.

There was a wide variety of music from renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary time periods, all played expertly.  The performers often chose at least some music for their programs that was written about the time that the organs were built.

You can see some photos from the convention at:

https://www.facebook.com/OrganSociety?fref=ts

I met two women who began studying the pipe organ after they retired from another career, just like I did!  Vicki Anderson is a retired physician who lives in Minnesota and she takes private organ lessons and sometimes plays for services at her church.  Renate McLaughlin is a retired university professor and administrator who lives in Michigan.  She earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in organ and church music after she retired.  She continues to learn new repertoire and she often plays services as a substitute organist.  Their enthusiasm for the pipe organ is contagious and I was encouraged by their experiences.

With Renate McLaughlin in the Chapel at Mount Holyoke College

The OHS provided a live webcast of the July 2 recital by Nathan Laube at Mount Holyoke College playing two different organs.  He played music of Buxtehude, Cabanilles, Poglietti, Rossi, Noordt and Goudimal on a 2-manual C. B. Fisk (Opus 84, 1986) Italian/German baroque organ Laube and played music of Rachmaninoff, Duprè, Howells, and Jongen on an organ that was built in 1898 by Hutchings (Opus 436).  This organ was then expanded by Skinner in 1922 (Opus 367) and 1938 (Opus 511) and then restored by Baker in 2001 and Czelusniak et Dugal in 2013.  Although webcasts from previous OHS conventions are on the OHS website, the recording of this July 2 Laube performance is not yet posted as of the date of this post.  If the recorded performance is posted in the future, it will be at this website:

http://www.organsociety.org/2015/

The Western Massachusetts convention handbook can be downloaded:

http://organsociety.org/html/convention/downloads/2015-Handbook.pdf

With my friend from New Jersey, Fran Morton, in the Chapel at Mount Holyoke College