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Feb 20, 2014

Grace, Georgetown, to Celebrate Addition of Historic Pipe Organ

After years of planning, dreaming and waiting, an historic 1962 Schlicker pipe organ has been repurposed and is being installed at Grace Episcopal Church, 1314 E. University Avenue, Georgetown, Texas.

 

Schedule of Events

 

A Service of Dedication and Holy Eucharist will begin at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, 2014, The Rev. Trey Garland, Rector, presiding, and featuring Don McManus, PhD,FAGO, parish music director and organist, and other organists associated with the instrument in prior years and former venues.

 

Following the ceremony, from 4-6 p.m., the Grace Heritage Center, home to the Georgetown Heritage Society, will be open offering docent-guided tours of the historic Old Grace Church, 811 S. Main Street.

 

The Inaugural Concert, featuring internationally renowned organist Joyce Jones, DMA, FAGO, will begin at 7 p.m. at the church’s University Avenue site. Seating is limited; an early arrival is encouraged.

 

About the Organ

 

The pipe organ originally was installed in 1962 by the Schlicker Organ Company of Buffalo, New York in the chapel of St. John’s College in Winfield, Kansas, for which the instrument had been custom designed and built. After the college closed in 1985, the organ was refurbished by Schlicker and relocated to the Schroeder Performance Hall of the Louise T. Peter Center at Concordia University in Austin, Texas.

 

When Concordia University moved its campus to north Austin in 2008, the organ was stored with the expectation of installing it in a chapel at the new site. In early 2011, Concordia University made a sacramental decision to relinquish ownership for the sake of having the instrument see service in a new venue.

 

Through persistence and grace, Don McManus came to take ownership of the organ, in anticipation of having it become a memorial to his mother, Claudia Ethelyn Vick McManus – likely calling the instrument “Ettsie’s organ.”

 

As Grace Episcopal Church had no immediate way to take possession of and house the large instrument, the organ went into storage for nearly three more years before there was a practical vision for its installation.

 

The pipe organ is comprised of 1,691 pipes, which are operated and manipulated from a revamped console in French amphitheater style, and supplemented by complimentary digital voices from Walker Technical Company of Pennsylvania. Newly expanded, the organ now has 78 voices and 96 ranks. The complicated project of refurbishing and installation has been capably shepherded by organ consultant The Rev. Larry Covington (Austin, Texas) and organbuilder Curtis Bobsin (San Antonio, Texas).