First Lutheran to dedicate 'new' hybrid organ

FINDLAY — First Lutheran Church is pulling out all of the stops for the dedication of its new Rodgers Infinity Series 489 organ. A concert featuring world-renowned organist Dan Miller will be held at 3 p.m. Sept. 29. The event is open to the public. "This is a unique instrument because it's a combination of digital sounds and the real pipes," said church member Kurt Ebersole. The first church had a pump reed organ, while the second church, built in 1881, had an Austin pipe organ with 23 ranks, he said. A rank is a row of pipes that all make the same sound, but at different pitches. "Then when they built the new church, they actually took that Austin organ out of the old church, refurbished it and put it into the new church," said Ebersole. In 1993, the church welcomed a brand new, state-of-the-art Rodgers hybrid organ with 97 ranks — said at the time to be the largest of its type on this side of the Mississippi. Ted Good, president of the T.S. Good Church Organ Co., Akron, built the organ over 30 years ago. He also worked on the newest instrument. Ebersole said the 1990s organ had a part go bad just before Christmas 2023. "The computer in that organ was 30-plus years old so you can imagine Ted trying to get a part for a computer that's 30-years-old. It was virtually impossible," he said. But Good had a console that was similar to the console they had, and there was a part that would work. His group came and installed it, and the organ lasted until two weeks before Christmas this year, Ebersole said. "And interestingly, it played the first service. It wouldn't play the second service," he said. "It just died." The church formed a committee and started a fundraising campaign. At first the congregation questioned if the organ could be played using just the pipes. "This isn't like an old pipe organ. It's not like an old organ where you push a key down and air goes through. It's electronic. It's an electronic switch and if you don't have the electronics working, it won't work," said Ebersole. "Ted said you can play one or the other, but you wouldn't want to." The installation with the new console was about $197,000. "This was the best of the best we could get, and the fundraising went so well we were able to get it," he said The new organ is a "marriage" of the 1992 Tellers pipes with the newest Rodgers four manual Infinity digital organ console. The new organ was carefully designed, voiced and finished with unity as the goal. The Tellers pipework brings 24 ranks to the union, while the new Rodgers Infinity console brings a massive amount of advanced digital technologies to complete the organ's unique musical design. The combined instrument has a total of 532 voices including 62 orchestral sounds. Rodgers voices are digital recordings from some of the best pipe organs in the world, stored in advanced memory and reproduced "live-stream" through bi-amplified stereo speakers located in the existing pipe structure and the chancel pipe organ cases. The speakers will sound all kinds of sounds, but they also mimic the pipe sounds, said Ebersole. "So the benefit of the digital electronics these days is that they can exactly duplicate a sound of one of these pipes or the sound of a flute or an oboe or all kinds of interesting things," he said. "It's way more complex," Good agreed. "Imagine what's happened in electronics in the last 30-some years." Putting pipes with electronics is a difficult thing to do, he added. "But Rodgers actually perfected that in like 1974. You have to combine the two and make it sound like they aren't combined." Church organist Miriam Gibson can also choose the type of organ she wants, whether she wants it to sound like an American pipe organ, an English organ, a French organ or a German organ, according to Good. "So as she changes her repertoire or maybe for a special performance, she can just dial down and it will become that type of organ," he said. "So it just gets more and more and more and more all the time." Miller is an internationally renowned, complete musician. He has taught music, conducted choirs and orchestras, managed large concert productions and music conferences and is well-known for his original compositions and arrangements. He has recorded 22 CDs of organ performances including many of his own published works. A church organist since age 15, Miller has served at several notable churches including Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he presided over the world's 13th largest pipe organ — 205 ranks with 11,499 pipes. He is in his 25th year as product manager for the Rodgers Instrument Corp. of Hillsboro, Oregon. He also is adjunct professor of organ at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. He is currently the organist for St. Mathew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, Oregon. A short reception will follow the concert.