The A.T. Olson Chapel pipe organ has gone quiet after decades of melodies, but the new owners of the Trinity International University campus in Bannockburn hope the musical artifact will be able to find a new home.
Made up of just over 1,300 pipes, the organ was built by Casavant Frères, a Canadian manufacturer that dates back to 1879. Each Casavant is identified by an opus number and its construction year.
According to the Pipe Organ Database, a digital catalogue maintained by the Organ Historical Society, Olson Chapel’s organ is the Casavant Frères Ltée. Opus 3464, 1980.
Anna Donato is the co-founder of the Donato Foundation, which purchased the Trinity campus in January to transform it into a youth sports hub. Although she heard the school had looked into selling or donating the organ, the effort was unsuccessful, and the instrument is now owned by the foundation as part of the campus purchase.
The foundation has big plans for the campus, but for the time being, the chapel will remain largely untouched, Donato said, meaning there’s no rush to relocate the pipe organ. But she said she’d love to see another organization in need of such an instrument, whether a church, a music program or a school, be able to give it a good home.
She has similar hopes for the campus’s historic mansion, sitting near the chapel. She envisions it becoming a space for local art shows or community organizations, and wants to connect with interested groups.
Donato encourages those interested in the pipe organ to reach out. Edward Landsin Senn, an executive assistant with OHS, said the market for pipe organs still exists, and he imagines there could be interest in the chapel’s instrument.
According to Senn, the Olson Chapel’s pipe organ is “electro-pneumatic.” That’s in contrast to the much older “tracker action” organs, which have the keyboard and pedals connected to the pipes mechanically via rods, levers and chains.
An electro-pneumatic organ instead has the pipes activated by an electric signal sent from the keyboard, although the musical notes are still produced by air being sent through the pipes.
While pipe organs go back centuries, Senn said any organ more than 50 years old is considered historic. At just over 45 years of age, the Olson pipe organ is from a different generation of design, and he noted the exposed pipes and their aesthetic that complements the chapel itself.
The centuries have seen many different builders, and at a variety of different scales. Concert halls can have organs the size of buildings, although smaller organs, such as at Olson Chapel, are common as well.
According to Senn, Mozart called the pipe organ the “king of instruments,” and important composers throughout the centuries have written for the organ and admired their musical qualities.
