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Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Plano, is pleased
to announce the acquisition and installation of
a pipe organ. This musical instrument will not
only enhance the church’s own musical offerings,
but will be showcased and offered to the
community through the church’s longstanding
concert series.
Not long ago,
the church had no plans, nor money, for a pipe
organ. When another church, Trinity Lutheran in
Dallas, decided to close after forty years in
November of 2006, their small pipe organ was
offered to Lord of Life as a gift. Some of the
organ was in disrepair and was in need of
expensive restoration. According to Benjamin
Kolodziej, Director of Music at Lord of Life,
“The mechanism of the pipe organ was
unsalvageable, but we decided to use the pipes
to incorporate into a future instrument.” The
organ’s 900 pipes were put into storage in Plano
and the church began raising money to build a
new organ from Trinity’s gift.
Meanwhile, Lord
of Life discovered that Concordia University in
Seward, Nebraska, had decided to buy a new organ
for its recital hall, offering the old one for
sale. Literally thousands of LCMS teachers and
musicians have studied on and played this organ
through the years. “This organ,” says Mr
Kolodziej, “has a better mechanism and can be
combined with the Trinity pipes forming a
combined organ better than either organ was by
itself.” With a goal and plan in mind, the
church was successful in raising the money to
purchase the organ from Nebraska, renovate it,
add the necessary elements from Trinity’s organ
and install it here in Plano, a process which
began in July. Hermann Boettcher and Sons, a
local organ builder, was selected to perform the
work. Karl Boettcher, owner of the firm, states
that his primary challenge with this project is
to achieve a natural sound from this renovated
and relocated pipe organ, “. . . designed
specifically for a different acoustical setting
and musical demands, shaping it into one better
suited to that of Lord of Life’s requirements,
while remaining basically within the confines of
the original instrument.”
The new organ
boasts 34 stops (different sounds) on two
keyboards and contains about 1900 pipes. A new
computerized control system using the latest
technology ensures that the organ is reliable,
easy for organists to play and is flexible
enough to accommodate a variety of music.
Assessing the organ’s impact on the community,
Lord of Life’s pastor, Rev. John Lindner, says
“Plano has seen some great new organs built in
the last few years, but there are still only a
few pipe organs in public use in the city, and
we are pleased that Lord of Life is now able to
contribute to this number by offering the organ
for concerts, teaching and other educational
opportunities.” He also adds, “Had it not been
for Trinity’s gift of their organ, we never
would have dreamed of undertaking such a
venture.” The organ was played for the first
time during Advent of 2007, and numerous
concerts, workshops and other activities are
already planned for 2008.
--as published in the March,
2008, edition of the Texas Section of the
Lutheran Witness magazine.
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