HOUSTON’S HIDDEN TREASURES: CHURCH ORGANS
A STUDY TOUR
Three Tuesdays, September 28, October 12 and 26, 10:30 a.m.
until 1:00 p.m. Limited Enrollment.
(Each session includes lunch. Parking instructions will be
furnished to subscribers.)
Hidden away in several architecturally significant Houston churches
are organs as important as great pieces of fine art. On this tour, we
will visit several of these instruments, including an internationally
known Baroque-style organ built according to the methods of an eighteenth-century
builder revered by Bach and a jewel-like small organ built by Houston’s
only organ-building firm. Also on the tour is Houston’s oldest
church organ, a Romantic instrument created by the leading nineteenth-century
American builder.
We will examine organ pipes close up, learn how an organ’s
soul-moving sound is affected by its setting, and consider what makes
each organ’s voice unique.
Robert Bates, associate professor of organ at the University
of Houston’s Moores School of Music, will play each organ and
demonstrate its distinctive qualities. We will also hear from the resident
organists. Bates was formerly university organist at Stanford University,
where he earned his doctorate in musicology. He was a prizewinner in
the Bruges international organ competition, and won two French conservatory
prizes, the Prix d’Excellence and the Prix de Virtuosité.
His numerous CDs include the complete organ works of Brahms, Daquin
and Correa de Arauxo, as well as his own compositions.
September 28: Christ the King Lutheran Church,
2353 Rice Boulevard at Greenbriar.
Charles Tapley and Gerald Moorhead, architects, 1982. Noack Organ, 1995.
(lunch at Christ the King)
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 5501 Main Street.
Albert Finn, architect, 1930. Schantz Organ, 1981.
October 12: Covenant Church (American Baptist), 4949 Caroline.
Appel, Rogers & Labarthe, architects, 2000. Hook and Hastings Organ,
1893. (lunch at Covenant)
Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, 6221 Main Street.
William Ward Watkin, architect, 1928. Fisk Organ, 1991.
October 26: St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 717 Sage Road.
Jackson & Ryan Architects, 2004. Schoenstein Organ, 2004. (lunch
at St. Martin’s)
Chapel of Villa de Matel Convent, 6510 Lawndale at Wayside Drive.
Maurice J. Sullivan, architect, 1928. Visser-Rowland Organ, 1977.
