Impromptu Organ Crawl November 18th
From Serious Theater:
By Garry M. Estep
The Dalles, Ore. November 6, 2023 – Members from the Portland branch of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) caught wind that we here in The Dalles boast five pipe organs, while many towns across the country our size have none. AGO contacted local organist Garry Estep to see about arranging an impromptu “organ crawl” so that some of their members might get literally “hands-on” to see what we have.
Saturday, November 18th the impromptu crawl will start off at 11:00 a.m. at St. Peter’s Landmark downtown with the historic 1907 Kilgen organ. The second stop is United Church of Christ Congregational (5th and Court Streets) with the 1954 Wick’s organ. After lunch we crawl to the First Church of Christ Scientist (701 Washington Street) and the 1932-33 Reuter organ. The next stop is St. Paul Episcopal (1805 Minnesota Street) and the 1905 Kimball organ. The final stop is Zion Lutheran ELCA (10th and Union Streets) and the 1976 Phelps-d’ Autremont organ. The plan is to spend about 30 minutes at each location.
Portland organists Matt Smith, Christine Partna, Heidi Kohne, Matthew O'Sullivan, Christopher Schindler, Gregory De Santis, and Rob Stoltz (and maybe more) will be participating.
The public is invited to join the crawl. There is no set program at each location. Donations will be accepted for The Dalles Organ Crawl Fund which is a resource to assist with the maintenance of our beautiful instruments.
