WOW! That is one BIG job from his description!!!! I was lucky to hear it play one time I visited the AFA, it was so beautiful brought tears to my eyes!!
I got to play this organ during my four years as a USAFA cadet years ago (thanks Dr Ed Ladouceur - one of the best organists ever). After some years of flying, I returned to USAFA as a EE Prof and again was privileged to play it (thanks Dr Joe Galema- another truly great organist). And, my special memory is being asked to play for the final service at before the chapel closing for rebuild during Parent's Weekend in Sep 2019. USAFA allowed me to have a pilot career and an engineering career while still balancing those technical things with the joys of playing one of the finest instruments in this country. I hope that I"ll be around to see, hear, and perhaps still play it when it returns to the renewed chapel.
Glad to hear this. As someone who has been on the crew tuning and maintaining this instrument for 10 years prior to the commencement of this restoration, it has been a privilege to do so. It is fun to play and has a glorious sound. The organ had some restoration work in 2000. However, after so many years of the ceiling leaking during every rainstorm, it has suffered significant water damage. Hence the biggest reason for taking the building apart and putting it back together. The catholic chapel organ has never had any restoration work and has needed it for quite some time. I'm thrilled that this is finally happening. These are famous instruments that are definitely worthy of preservation. As a whole, all 4 of us crew members were actually crying when we left the chapel after our final visit in March of 2019. There were many memories made during our monthly visits that began in June of 2008, both good and bad. The bad being the scrapes and bruises. At 6'5", it proved to be quite the challenge to maneuver myself through the pipe work. Probably 2 of the most humorous memories I have are the many rolls of duct tape used to try and silence the wind leak on one of the great division resivors and the many times of having to help lift the largest reed resonator on the instrument to clean dead bugs off of the reed tongue. Of course it always had had to be the "low C" or C1. It's amazing that one dead fly can silence a pipe. With them front and center and uncovered, the 32' Contra Bombarde pipes are the show off center piece of the instrument. With them not being bugled however, they get a lot of crap in them. One other humorous memory is the 8' pedal trumpet rank. It was the one that always took on the most water during a rainstorm. It seemed like every month, another pipe on this rank would go silent (ok, this is not so humorous). What was humorous was that sometimes one of them would randomly and miraculously start speaking again. This always made us happy because this is one rank that you can hear even playing with "full organ" and when it's silent, it is dearly missed because it adds so much to the organ. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like when it returns because if memory serves me correctly, it had over 200 silent pipes at the time of our final tuning. Sorry for the novel response, but I thought it would be good to share this. On that note, I'll shut up now, lol. Thanks for sharing your experiences with this instrument!
My students and I took a field trip to the AFA, and because of Dr. Joe, every one of my kids got to play the instrument in the Protestant Chapel. As a teacher, it doesn't get better than this.
Eons ago when the world was still wide open and unlocked, I too visited the chapel on a Colorado trip. Of course any Northwestern University Music School organ grad wouldn't think of leaving the chaoek without trying out the organ. So I sat down on the Holtkamp console with its M.P. Moller pipes (wondering if my ears were playing TRICKS) & improvised a long prelude on FAIREST LORD JESUS ending with full organ. The chapel docent was so sweet by saying how much she enjoyed hearing me among so many other organists. We hugged good-byes, and then started my way back home to Augusta, GA grateful I got to play the Air Force Chapel organ.
I've seen videos of other pipe organs being maintained, and it is quite and undertaking. I'm sure the crew will do a great job, and as a historical note, the organ was fixed up during another building maintenance period, and Covid-19, so with luck, everything will be open by later in 2021.
WOW! That is one BIG job from his description!!!! I was lucky to hear it play one time I visited the AFA, it was so beautiful brought tears to my eyes!!
I got to play this organ during my four years as a USAFA cadet years ago (thanks Dr Ed Ladouceur - one of the best organists ever). After some years of flying, I returned to USAFA as a EE Prof and again was privileged to play it (thanks Dr Joe Galema- another truly great organist). And, my special memory is being asked to play for the final service at before the chapel closing for rebuild during Parent's Weekend in Sep 2019. USAFA allowed me to have a pilot career and an engineering career while still balancing those technical things with the joys of playing one of the finest instruments in this country. I hope that I"ll be around to see, hear, and perhaps still play it when it returns to the renewed chapel.
Glad to hear this. As someone who has been on the crew tuning and maintaining this instrument for 10 years prior to the commencement of this restoration, it has been a privilege to do so. It is fun to play and has a glorious sound. The organ had some restoration work in 2000. However, after so many years of the ceiling leaking during every rainstorm, it has suffered significant water damage. Hence the biggest reason for taking the building apart and putting it back together. The catholic chapel organ has never had any restoration work and has needed it for quite some time. I'm thrilled that this is finally happening. These are famous instruments that are definitely worthy of preservation. As a whole, all 4 of us crew members were actually crying when we left the chapel after our final visit in March of 2019. There were many memories made during our monthly visits that began in June of 2008, both good and bad. The bad being the scrapes and bruises. At 6'5", it proved to be quite the challenge to maneuver myself through the pipe work. Probably 2 of the most humorous memories I have are the many rolls of duct tape used to try and silence the wind leak on one of the great division resivors and the many times of having to help lift the largest reed resonator on the instrument to clean dead bugs off of the reed tongue. Of course it always had had to be the "low C" or C1. It's amazing that one dead fly can silence a pipe. With them front and center and uncovered, the 32' Contra Bombarde pipes are the show off center piece of the instrument. With them not being bugled however, they get a lot of crap in them. One other humorous memory is the 8' pedal trumpet rank. It was the one that always took on the most water during a rainstorm. It seemed like every month, another pipe on this rank would go silent (ok, this is not so humorous). What was humorous was that sometimes one of them would randomly and miraculously start speaking again. This always made us happy because this is one rank that you can hear even playing with "full organ" and when it's silent, it is dearly missed because it adds so much to the organ. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like when it returns because if memory serves me correctly, it had over 200 silent pipes at the time of our final tuning. Sorry for the novel response, but I thought it would be good to share this. On that note, I'll shut up now, lol. Thanks for sharing your experiences with this instrument!
I would love to hear you play it sometime, once the roof fix, and Corona Virus are done. -Cheers
My students and I took a field trip to the AFA, and because of Dr. Joe, every one of my kids got to play the instrument in the Protestant Chapel. As a teacher, it doesn't get better than this.
Eons ago when the world was still wide open and unlocked, I too visited the chapel on a Colorado trip. Of course any Northwestern University Music School organ grad wouldn't think of leaving the chaoek without trying out the organ. So I sat down on the Holtkamp console with its M.P. Moller pipes (wondering if my ears were playing TRICKS) & improvised a long prelude on FAIREST LORD JESUS ending with full organ. The chapel docent was so sweet by saying how much she enjoyed hearing me among so many other organists. We hugged good-byes, and then started my way back home to Augusta, GA grateful I got to play the Air Force Chapel organ.
I've seen videos of other pipe organs being maintained, and it is quite and undertaking. I'm sure the crew will do a great job, and as a historical note, the organ was fixed up during another building maintenance period, and Covid-19, so with luck, everything will be open by later in 2021.