The residence organ for Elaine Mann of Chippewa Falls, WI is nearly complete.  Ed and Gene have only a few miscellaneous details to button up before the instrument is packed later this month. Elaine is organist for Grace Lutheran Church in Eau Claire, WI. 

Similar to the Lincoln model in our Legacy Line, the organ will feature a white oak case with two manuals and pedal in this disposition: 

I: Rohrflute, II: Gedackt 8, Pedal: Manual II/Pedal. 

Opus 82 was showcased during a workshop at our shop for the first ever Pipe Organ Encounter/Advanced in Lincoln, NE, in mid July.   Installation of Opus 82 is scheduled for early August.

Fred, Todd, Eric and Jon spent a few days this June installing a vintage Hook and Hastings at St. Alban’s Collegiate Chapel adjacent to the Southern Methodist University campus. 

We revived Opus 2109 after rescuing the two manual, 13 stop, tracker organ from a rural Nebraska church.  Originally built in 1906 for St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Grand Island, NE, (see black and white photo) the organ remains largely unchanged and still features its original quartered oak keydesk and gold painted facade pipes. 

Other than typical releathering and mechanical repairs, the only significant changes to the organ were the relocation of the Pedal chest and and addition of two new stops to the Great division: Quinte 2-2/3 and Terz 1-3/5.

Our new brochure is now available.  Email or call us and we’ll send you one.

 The end of May saw the Bedient crew install Opus 80 in St. John’s Lutheran Church’s newly renovated sanctuary in Sacramento, CA.

Typically, the press has a hard time communicating the fine points of organ construction, but the Sacramento News & Review covered the event with this solid (and slightly irreverant) account:

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=664567

With the arrival of several keyboards and an attractive new pipe organ there is much excitement at Chapel Arts New England in Gorham, NH.

Chapel Arts is a art gallery and performance space in a converted church.  In addition to hosting weddings, concerts and receptions, the facility is also home to annual whistling and harmonica contests.

Through a collaboration with Charles Lang and Susan Ferre, musicians who have summered in Gorham for the past 40 years, and soon to be residents of Berlin, Chapel Arts will have available a distinguished collection of musical instruments, including an 11-stop pipe organ built by Gene Bedient of Lincoln, NE, now being installed by Paul Lytle and Kenneth Lytle of the Bedient Pipe Organ company.  Gorham residents Tom Dyar and Josh Dyer, with help from John Scarinza of Randolph, have given valuable expertise in the project.

Other instruments which arrived on Tuesday with the organ include an Erard piano, dating from 1863, placed by Michie Akin of Dallas, TX, who will play at the inaugural concert on this instrument this summer as part of the Classical Sundays Series.  In addition, Chapel Arts this week hosts a clavichord, portative organ, a positive organ, a regal, and two harpsichords, one of which dates from 1810 and is lavishly decorated with paintings from the 17th century. 

A sneak preview of these instruments along with ethnic percussion and exotic world instruments and historical harps will be shown to a class of music students from the White Mountains Community College on Tuesday, April 29.  Members of band Shelburne Addition will help demonstrate other traditional and historical instruments as well. The new Classical Sunday Series at Chapel Arts will run from July 13th through August 31st.  All concerts will begin at 4 pm and are free and open to the public.  The offerings include:

July 6 - Open House with tour and demonstration of instruments

July 13 - Bedient organ dedication with builder present, Susan Ferré,
organist, program to include narrative and music, entitled, “Stories From
the Human Village:  The Walled City of Gold”

July 20 - Susan Ferré, organist, “Stories From the Human Village:  War and
Peace”  a recreation of a critically acclaimed CD, released by Ferre, which
has garnered Gold status from RadioIndy

July 27 - Charles S. Brown creates a one-man play, entitled, “Mozart and
Salieri”

[August 3 - Concert in Randolph church, All-Bach, with Charles Lang, Baroque
cello and viola da gamba]

August 10 - Classical Guitarist Melika Fitzhugh

August 17 - Michie Akin and David Westfall at the 1863 Erard piano

August 24 - St. Botolph’s Town Band, Joyce Alper, oboist, with her Boston
oboe band

August 31 - An all-Bach concert for various instruments, including organ,
harpsichord, clavichord, Baroque cello, viola da gamba, among others. 

(Courtesy Chapel Arts)

Gene Bedient and Fred Zander, assisted by numerous volunteers, completed their move and installation of the 2003 Beckerath at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, OH in mid-April. The 3 manual, 31 stop, 42 rank organ previously resided in the Ketterer residence in Washington, CT. The purchase of the Wacek Memorial Organ is a result of years of fundraising and is now in the St. Turibius Chapel on the college campus. Read more…

Gene and Fred have started disassembling and packing the Beckerath for its journey from Connecticut to Ohio.  Reassembly should be complete in early April.

   Bedient Pipe Organ Company has been chosen by the Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, OH, to relocate their newest purchase, a 2003 Beckerath.

   Originally built for the Stephen Ketterer residence in Washington, CT, the organ will be moved this Spring to the St. Turibius Chapel organ loft.  The three-manual/pedal, 31 stop tracker organ features white oak casework with pipeshades and other ornamentation guilded in gold leaf.

The organ is funded from a gift from the Wacek family of Marysville, KS, and other donations.

Organist Douglas Cleveland performed the dedication recital celebrating the completion of Bedient Opus 81 at First Congregational Church in Sioux Falls, SD, in early February.

“Douglas Cleveland was raised in Olympia, Washington and is a sixth generation Washingtonian. He has studied at the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and Oxford University. Cleveland received a Lilly grant to study advanced choral conducting with David Hill at Winchester Cathedral. Mr. Cleveland gained international prominence when he won first prize in the 1994 American Guild of Organists National Young Artists Competition in Dallas.Since then, he has performed in 48 of the United States and has been invited to perform in such venues as Westminster Abbey, the Berlin Cathedral, Stockholm Cathedral, Moscow Conservatory, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, St. Patrick’s Cathedral inMelbourne, Minato Mirai Concert Hall in Yokohama, Japan, and the Cathedral of Lausanne, Switzerland.He has also performed with several symphony orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Northwestern University Symphony and the National Symphony, for an audience of 3,000, at the Washington National Cathedral. Cleveland has performed with many early music ensembles, including Paul Hillier’s “Theatre of Voices.” A number of his performances havebeen broadcast on National Public Radio, the BBC, and the Northwest radio program “The Organ Loft.” From 1999 to 2004 he was assistant professor of organ at Northwestern University, where he received the Searle Award for Teaching Excellence. He has served as a visiting faculty memberat St. Olaf College and the University of Washington in Seattle. Since 2004, Cleveland has held the position of organist and director of music at Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle, where he directs three choirs and administers a concert series. He is represented by Karen McFarlane Artists,Cleveland, Ohio.” From recital program.

From First Congregational:

“The completion of this marvelous instrument is the final phase in a project that has included remodeling of the Chancel area, acoustical improvements and enhanced lighting and sound. The goalof this project was to make our century-old “meeting house” a place where people come together,not only for worship, but for learning, public discourse and the sharing of ideas. It is a place that enables and encourages people to think and to learn, to listen and to speak, and to seek the sense ofcommunity that comes with the honest sharing of and respect for another belief or point of view.

We believe that God is still speaking, and we join together to discover and share that divine presence in our world today.The ability to express ourselves through the creation and appreciation of art is one of the ways inwhich we seek to encounter our still-speaking God. Our Sanctuary provides a place where a widevariety of arts are possible. An integral part of this worship and arts space is our pipe organ.

Our collaboration with the Bedient Organ Company has produced an instrument that incorporates the best of our past—there are pipes in the organ from 1922— with new pipework which expands andcompletes this versatile pipe organ. The casework created by Bedient to frame the new speaking façade makes a dramatic visual impact, beautifully blending with existing woodwork in the room.  Theorgan’s voice supports congregational song, inspires people in worship, and enables the performanceof a wide variety of organ literature. It will serve this church and community well for many years to come. Soli Deo Gloria!”

Most of the Bedient Pipe Organ crew descended upon First Congregational Church in Sioux Falls, SD, Nov 11, to begin installation of Opus 81.   Even with dozens of members of the congregation helping unload the truck, it took two hours to move all of the pieces indoors.  Fortunately, we were assisted by sunny skies and mild temperatures. The installation, essentially a complete renovation of the church’s 1967 Reuter, follows a successful resuscitation of the organ’s console and wind system Bedient completed several years ago.   While the organ’s original non-speaking façade included only pipes, the new façade features red oak casework designed to accentuate the frame and panel woodwork below the organ chamber. Featuring 20 round and triangular projections, the organ case is balanced by more than 100 pipes, most of them now speaking.   We also installed new Great and Pedal windchests and repositioned a refinished and reorganized console on a rolling dolly.   When completed, the organ will contain 15 new stops, bringing the total to 55.