3 New Organs for Trinity Wall Street

[voet]

There is an interesting article in today's New York Times about Trinity Wall Street. The church is undergoing a renovation that will include 3 new organs when it is completed.

In a video on the Trinity website Julian Wachner, Trinity's Director of Music and the Arts, says the organ for the nave is being built by a partnership between Rosales and Glatter-Gotz. He mentions that 8,000 pipes will be installed in the rear gallery and 2,000 pipes will be installed in the front. It is not clear if these will be two separate instruments (even if playable at one console.) He also does not mention a third organ. I was not able to find information about this project on the Rosales and Glatter-Gotz websites. Anyone have more information?

[michaelhoddy]

My guess is that the third organ is referring to the recently transplanted Noack in St. Paul's Chapel.

https://www.noackorgan.com/opus/161/

[voet]

I wondered the same thing, although that instrument is already installed in the chapel. I also thought that the third instrument might be a small continuo instrument.

[St Josaphat]

The Noack is a nice organ, I played it last spring.

[lizny]

They have a little cabinet continuo - a Fisk I think, I saw them set it up for a Christmas program while I was there for one of their Pipes at One programs. St Josaphat - are they open to amateur organists trying out their Noack? I'd love to get to show off for my coworkers someday, as work is in that neighborhood :-D

[Melos Antropon]

Have they said what their plans are for the massive M&O organ?

Tony

[voet]

Tony, they made no mention of the M&O. I also thought that they had the former AS in storage so it could be restored, but that is not mentioned either.

[ContraBourdon]

The Aeolian-Skinner was donated by Trinity to Johns Creek UMC (Atlanta, GA), was refurbished and enlarged by Casavant, and installed in, I believe, 2017.

[arie v]

Hi,

The M & O, has been removed from Trinity WS, and has been refurbished, and is fore sale, unless it has been sold already.

AV

[BobbyByrd]

Trinity Wall Street already has a Continuo organ. Here is the NYC AGO Chapter link to Trinity and its remaining Chapel organs http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/TrinityWS.html I believe Trinity at one time had 12 chapels in Manhattan. The other chapels have become independent parishes. The northernmost chapel, that I know of, is on 155th Street. Intersession was an independent parish that fell on bad times and was absorbed by Trinity, to later become independent. http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/Intercession.html. The current organ at Intercession was previously at St. Paul's Chapel, Fulton St & Broadway. The Aeolian-Skinner organ [Op. 768-A] built in 1950 for St. Paul's Chapel was refurbished and altered by Schlicker for installation at Trinity's 'Cemetery Chapel'.

[BobbyByrd]

FYI for those who are unaware, St. Paul's Chapel is across the street from WTC and is the oldest public building on Manhattan in continuous use. Behind its cemetery once flowed the Hudson River. 4/30/1789 George Washington worshiped at St. Paul's after his inauguration on Wall Street at Broad Street because Trinity's previous edifice was being rebuilt after a fire. The pew on which he sat was removed after 9/11 and St. Paul's, miraculously unharmed became a place of respite, feeding and sleep for First Responders. http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/htm...l-Trinity.html

[johnroper100]

The M&O instrument has been sold to another church.

[circa1949]

I found some video of the old AS. Sounds great. Glad it went to somewhere that wanted it and had the financial resources to install it.

(sermon ends around 24:30)

[Admin]

Edited post to embed video. How to share a video

[AllenAnalog]

As always, a bit of digging turns up the rest of the story. "It was thought that dust from the collapse of the towers (just blocks from Trinity Church) had irreparably damaged the organ. However, this was not true." Thanks to John Bishop of the Organ Clearing House the organ was donated to Johns Creek United Methodist Church in Georgia.

Another magnificent Aeolian-Skinner organ was saved when otherwise it might have been trashed or left to rot in storage. Kudos to the congregation for raising the money to make the relocation and restoration possible. What a wonderful ending to this story.

https://www.johnscreekumc.org/worship/music/organ/

https://www.agoatlanta.org/organ/joh...hodist-church/

Diane Bish playing the organ in 2017:

[michaelhoddy]

I'm so glad that organ found a new life and home. It was pretty evident that there was a bit of an agenda at play when the Marshall & Ogletree first went into Trinity. It's not as if the church lacked for resources to do, well, pretty much whatever they wanted to in the way of an organ. But timing and timelines also played a role, and the M&O, even if derided by purists as being the wrong choice in such a prestigious venue, did perform better than most everyone expected.

And the other side of things is that, by many accounts, the Aeolian-Skinner wasn't entirely successful in that space, at least to the level of some of the truly great ones.