First Presbyterian, Farmington Hills, Michigan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lance Luce of Hammell Music in Livonia, Michigan, Bill Klimas of
Reuter Pipe Organ Company in Lawrence, Kansas and Mark Austin of
Rodgers Instrument Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon have created an
instrument like no other to date.
This is the first organ designed and built from the ground up by these
famous organ companies. The Console is a custom designed
Rodgers 3 manual with 12 audio channels. The pipe work consists of
27 newly-built ranks in four divisions, including separate Swell and
Choir divisions under expression. The façade is the flamed copper 16’
Pedal Principal, blending beautifully with the churches wood, brick and
stained glass windows.
Reuter and Rodgers worked closely together in designing a stoplist
that includes a principal chorus with mixtures in each of the three
manual divisions, various flute ranks, string and string celeste, and two
trumpet ranks, one of which continues in the pedal to a full length 16’.
The organ has 72 stops, unlimited piston memory, MIDI record and
playback, and 1000+ additional organ and orchestral voices via a MIDI
sound module.
Mary Whittmore, organists, and Lance Luce, representative, traveled
to Lawrence, Kansas to the Reuter factory to play the organ in the
erecting room. The organ was then completely disassembled and
delivered to the church and installed. The church had recently
completed a renovation, in part, to make room for the new pipe
chambers.
The result is an instrument that is beautiful to look at and listen to, with
all the modern features essential to traditional and modern worship
styles.
This is Mary
Whittmore with
Chris Leaver, C.O.O.
of Reuter, he was
making sure
everything was OK.
<---
These 3 pictures are of the
organ, set up in the factory,
in Lawrence, Kansas. Mary
and I visited there, and played
the organ.
Fred Swann dedicates new organ at First Presbyterian of Farmington, April
20th, 2005 for an overflow size audience. Everything was wonderful, the
artist, the organ and the audience. More information HERE.
These 4 pictures ------->>>
show some of the
construction work that went
into expanding the sanctuary.
Many new improvements
were done at the same time
as making room for the organ.
