THE WANAMAKER GRAND ORGAN at MACY'S has been heard by Philadelphia shoppers and visitors every business day since 1911. The Friends Society was formed to support the preservation and musical mission of this irreplaceable American treasure. Built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the Wanamaker Organ was designed by renowned organ architect George Ashdown Audsley. The instrument has six keyboards, 729 color-coded stop tabs, 168 piston buttons under the keyboards and 42 foot controls. The console weighs 2.5 tons; the entire instrument weighs 287 tons.

This excerpt is the final movement of Peter Conte's transcription of Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations as performed on June 9th, 2007.

For more information please visit:

http://www.WanamakerOrgan.com
http://www.OrganSociety.org
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

© copyright 2007 Vic Ferrer Productions

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From July 5th - 10th 2009, The Organ Historical Society will hold its Annual Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. E.M. Skinner Opus 328, located at the Cleveland Auditorium will be one of the instruments toured and heard. This video was shot on January 10th of 2006 and documents Skinner's "Magnum Opus" being started up and played for the first time in 22 years. The OHS hopes that by bringing attention to this historically significant instrument that the citizens of Cleveland will come to appreciate, protect and enjoy the treasure they have in their possession.

For more information visit: http://www.OrganSociety.org or http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

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This video montage of Ferdinand Hess' photographs of the construction of the great Atlantic City Convention Hall pipe organ is a special feature from the The Senator's Masterpiece DVD. To order your DVD copy of this 55-minute documentary complete with other Special Features and more visit The Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society or The Organ Historical Society at:

http://www.ohscatalog.com/atci ordvd.html
http://www.ACCHOS.org
http://www.OrganSociety.org

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

© 2006 Vic Ferrer Productions (less)

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The story of the San Francisco Municipal Pipe Organ.

For more information please visit:

http://www.SFExpositionOrgan.o rg

http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

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This is the animated logo ID for my pipe organ related projects.

For more information about the producer, please visit: http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

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This is an excerpt from The Senator's Masterpiece. To order your DVD copy of this 55-minute documentary complete with Special Features and more visit The Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society or The Organ Historical Society at:

http://www.ohscatalog.com/atci ordvd.html
http://www.ACCHOS.org
http://www.OrganSociety.org

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

© 2006 Vic Ferrer Productions (less)

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This final tour of Austin Opus 558 was conducted on October 12th, 2000. Just days before the Medinah Temple in Chicago was gutted and turned into a department store. The organ was removed under the supervision of Austin Organs. This instrument is in storage somewhere in Chicago with an uncertain future.

http://www.ohschicago.org/

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

© 2001 Vic Ferrer Productions

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"Enduring for a Reason" is the working title for my upcoming documentary about historic pipe organs and why these instruments should be considered works-of-art worthy of preservation. I hope to have this full-length documentary completed by 2010.

© 2008 Vic Ferrer Productions

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

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A Pipe Organ Encounter is a 4-5 day regional event organized by a local chapter of the American Guild of Organists under the sponsorship of the national organization. It introduces teenagers and young adults to the world of the pipe organ. This short video documents the 2005 POE hosted by the San Francisco Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

© 2006 Vic Ferrer Productions

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

Teachers and access to real pipe organs were provided for each of the 32 student attendees. At the end of the week Felix Hell, the then 19 year-old German virtuoso, gave a concert at Saint Cecilia's Church in San Francisco.

Justin Kielty served as Director of the event and Craig Brenner procured faculty, venues and coordinated teaching activities.

Additional lectures, tours and demonstrations were provided by Edward Millington Stout, III - Curator, Spreckles Organ, Legion of Honor and Stanford Theater, Palo Alto. Jack Bethards - Tonal Director and President Schoenstein & Co. organ builders.

The following SF-AGO members taught or volunteered their time: Ron McKeen, organist First Presbyterian Church, Oakland, CA, John Karl Hirten, Director of Parish Music at St. Stephen's Church in Belvedere; Eulah Capron, organist at Christ Episcopal Church in Sausalito; Donald Sears; Paul Rosas and Robert Huw Morgan of Stanford University; The Contra Costa Organ Club; Rick Walling; Cheryl Arnold, music director of St Monica's Church in San Francisco; Simon Berry, Director of Music and Liturgy at St Dominic's Church in San Francisco; Bill Catherwood, organist at Ninth Church of Christ, Scientist, San Francisco; Angela Kraft Cross, organist, the Congregational Church of San Mateo; Glen Frank, organist and music director Notre Dame des Victoires, San Francisco; Susan Matthews, principal organist, Grace Cathedral; Douglas Franks, organist, Hope Lutheran Church, San Mateo; Ken Mansfield, organist emeritus, Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church; Christoph Tietze, Music Director and Organist, St Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco; R Jay Williamson, Organist and music director, St Anne of the Sunset.

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The Organ Historical Society 2006 Convention

© 2007 Vic Ferrer Productions

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com

The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall is a 19th-century concert hall built in the Italian Renaissance style. At the center of the hall stands a great pipe organ installed in 1890 by John H. and Caleb S. Odell of New York City.

The organ was unplayable at the time organ builder Scot L. Huntington and Stephen L. Pinel, the head of the Organ Historical Society's American Organ Archives in Princeton, N.J., began scouting the hall in planning for The Society's 50th-anniversary convention. They were both excited to find that the bank was willing to assist with bringing the organ back to playing condition for the convention.

Under the leadership of Mr. Huntington, a restoration team of 22 volunteer organists, organ builders and theater-organ fans began cleaning, dusting, patching and nurturing the instrument back into playable condition. Several organ building and maintenance companies including the Odell Organ Company contributed material and labor. For more history about the organ builders please visit http://www.odellorgans.com/Org ans/HistoricInstruments/troy.h tml

Thus far two of the three manual divisions have been cleaned and minor repairs have been made. The goal of the project was to make the organ playable for the upcoming convention and to raise awareness about the organ in the community. Several hundred convention participants gathered to hear the partially repaired organ on June 30th of 2006.

The Organ Historical Society first met in New York City in 1956 to find ways to keep old instruments like this one from being destroyed, torn out or just thrown away.

"We got this organ working again," Mr. Huntington told the audience at the concert. "Full restoration is still needed and will cost somewhere upward of $1 million."

For more information visit http://www.OrganSociety.org, www.OdellOrgans.com, http://www.SLHorgans.com

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The 2002 OHS (Organ Historical Society Convention)
This organ is located at the Sanfilippo Victorian Palace in Barrington Hills, Illinois- (approx. 40 miles NW of downtown Chicago).


© 2003 Vic Ferrer Productions

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com/more/

http://organsociety.org/
http://www.placedelamusique.or g/pipeorgan.html

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This is the trailer for a documentary about the world's largest musical instrument and the grassroots movement to protect it, restore it and return it to public use—The Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ. Seven keyboards and more than 33,000 pipes!

To order your DVD copy of this 55-minute documentary complete with Special Features and more visit The Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society or The Organ Historical Society at:

http://www.ohscatalog.com/atci ordvd.html
http://www.ACCHOS.org
http://www.OrganSociety.org

For information about the producer please visit:
http://www.VicFerrerProduction s.com/more/

© 2006 Vic Ferrer Productions (less)

Special features include the Midmer-Losh and Ballroom Kimball "home movies," a video tour of the pipe chambers, a trailer for an upcoming documentary and more.

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