Christ Church (Episcopal) ~ Rochester ~ Hook & Hastings, No. 1573 (1893) OHS 63rd Annual Convention Guide WELCOME TO ROCHESTER! NESTLED ON THE SOUTHERN SHORE val, Rochester International Film Festival, organs, a flourishing organ scene has of Lake Ontario, traversed by the Genesee Fringe Festival, Lilac Festival, the Eastman become a focal point of Rochester’s cul- River and its dramatic downtown water- Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) Festival, tural life. More than thirty organ majors falls, and situated on the Erie Canalway and too many others to innumerate here. studying at Eastman play in liturgical and National Heritage Corridor, Rochester And with stunning natural beauty sur- concert contexts in sacred and secular offers something for the music lover, art rounding the city, those who opt to join spaces throughout the city each week, aficionado, wine connoisseur, and every- us for the post-convention day can enjoy earning a devoted following of pipe one in between. Visit the world-famous a wine tasting in the picturesque Finger organ enthusiasts. Few cities boast such International Museum of Photography, Lakes region of upstate New York. an extraordinary breadth and diversity of Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester Contem- At the core of Rochester’s music scene instrument types, ranging from original porary Art Center, or any number of more is the Eastman School of Music, the result and facsimile 18th-century organs to the than twenty museums and galleries in of George Eastman’s vision in 1921 to con- roaring Wurlitzers of the Gilded Age, and the area. Whose curiosity would not be struct a world-class music conservatory to almost everything in the middle. piqued by the Strong National Museum attract the nation’s finest faculty and stu- Our convention headquarters this of Play, home to the nation’s second-larg- dents. Eastman has remained a leader in year is no ordinary hotel — offering est collection of antique and collectible performance, composition, scholarship, breathtaking views, a resort atmosphere, toys? A thriving festival culture is part of and education for nearly a century. Since fine dining, a golf course, and a spa and the vital heartbeat of New York’s third the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative health club, we are thrilled to call the lux- largest city, among which are counted the took flight in the early 2000s, punctuated uriously appointed Woodcliff Hotel & Spa Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festi- by the installation of many new landmark our home for this convention week. It will be an ideal place to spend time recon- necting and relaxing with your cherished friends and colleagues in an idyllic set- ting. In addition to the convention coach service, taxi and Uber services are avail- able for easy mobility around Rochester’s compact metropolitan area. You can find yourself in the heart of any one of Roch- ester’s neighborhoods and at many of our convention locations within five to fifteen minutes. We so look forward to welcoming you to Rochester and to sharing these extraor- dinary offerings with you during this 63rd Annual Convention of the OHS. Welcome! SATURDAY, JULY 28 THERE ARE SOME PLACES that merit multiple and regular visits, and our con- vention will include one such place on its optional pre-convention day: Ithaca, New York. While the 2014 Syracuse Convention recently devoted a day to this constel- lation of wonderful instruments, a new French-Romantic organ has further diver- sified the already impressive collection, and the others remain as fresh and stim- SUNDAY, JULY 29 ulating as ever. Come discover the newly Christ Church (Episcopal) ~ Rochester GOArt/Yokota (2008) inaugurated 2016 Juget-Sinclair, Op. 45 (II/23), based on models by the great OUR CONVENTION officially begins on French organbuilder Aristide Cavaillé- Sunday with a morning free to enjoy a lei- Op. 325 (IV/88), designed in collaboration Coll at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. Con- surely brunch at the Woodcliff, perhaps a with Harold Gleason, founder of the East- tinue from the symphonic fonds d’orgue quick ride to any number of Rochester’s man Organ Department. Entirely under of St. Luke’s to the vocal Principals, fun- beautiful churches for a morning liturgy, expression, and possessing every imag- damental Trompets and Posaunes, and li- or a long walk along the Erie Canal in inable orchestral color stop in Skinner’s quescent flutes of the 2011 GOArt/Yokota nearby Pittsford or in Frederick Law Olm- palette to date, it awaits a full restoration (II/43), based on the 1706 organ built by sted’s Highland Park. As you greet friends as the culmination of the EROI project. Arp Schnitger for Schloss Charlottenburg arriving from every corner of the world, We will be treated in this opulent space you will be able to pick up your conven- to a concert of chamber music featuring in Anabel Taylor Hall. This company of tion registration and explore the exhibits. organ-related keyboard instruments. organs is further enriched with an Italian The afternoon begins at the musi- The commanding Gothic-Revival tow- perspective from Augustinus Vicedomini cal epicenter of Rochester: the Eastman er of Christ Church may have caught your and his 1746 Neopolitan meantone organ School of Music and its three venerable attention en route to Eastman, and you (I/7), restored by Greg Harrold Organ- concert halls. As you enter the grand are welcome to participate in an organ builders in 2000. Rich in mosaics, Tiffany foyer, Lowry Hall, take a moment to peek demonstration of the two great organs glass, and polychroming, Sage Chapel into the largest of the concert halls, Kodak of Christ Church this afternoon. This is an features not only this Italian Baroque Hall at the Eastman Theatre, once a 3,250- opportunity to learn more about these organ, but also a quintessential G. Donald seat movie palace and concert hall, and particular 18th- and 19th-century instru- Harrison “American Classic,” the 1940 Ae- now home to the Rochester Philharmonic ments from those who live and work with olian-Skinner Organ Company, Op. 1009 Orchestra. Until the 1970s it housed Aus- them day-to-day, ask questions, and enjoy (III/68). None of these instruments are to tin Organ, Op. 1010, hailed as the largest a more informal, “up-close-and-personal” be missed, particularly in the gorgeous theatre organ in the world at the time of moment with them. Buses will bring you setting of Ithaca with its charming cafés its construction in 1922. Just a few steps to the nearby, trendy Park Avenue neigh- and bookstores coupled with the relaxed away, you will enter Kilbourn Hall, the borhood of Rochester for dinner at any summer pace of an otherwise bustling 444-seat chamber music recital hall and number of its dining establishments and university town. home of 1921 Skinner Organ Company, shuttle you back to Christ Church for the Reform strikingly juxtaposed with the earnest Pennsylvania sonorities of a cen- tury earlier: the 1964 Holtkamp Organ Co., Job 1771 (III/42) and 1869 Samuel Bohler (I/7) restored by Raymond J. Brunner in 2006, respectively. Groups will visit one of the most antic- ipated sights of the week, the famous George Eastman House and Museum, in alternation with a break for lunch. Synon- ymous with the Eastman Kodak Company and with photography itself, George East- man is to thank for a great deal of Roches- ter’s organ heritage. The unique history of his residence — the oldest museum in the world dedicated to photography — and its two Aeolian organs is astonishing. 1904 Aeolian Company, Op. 947 (III/66) and 1916 Aeolian Company, Op. 1345 (III/40) consti- tute together one of the largest residence organs in the world (IV/106). The collection of player rolls of the most famous organ- ists of yesteryear affords the opportunity to step back in time and imagine Harold Gleason playing for Mr. Eastman each morning during his breakfast ritual… We continue our tour at the imposing Gothic-Revival Asbury First Methodist Church and its suave “American Classic” from 1955: Austin Organ, Inc., Op. 2215 (IV/74). Among the largest instruments in town, its expansive tonal scheme char- acteristically has one foot in the sound world of the past and another in the forward-looking Organ Reform Move- ment. Those retrospective tendencies crystallize in our visit to one of Roches- St. Joseph’s Church (R.C.) ~ Penfield ter’s smaller Skinner organs residing in Ortloff Organ Company, LLC, Op. 1 (2016) one of its signature ecclesiastic spaces, the Episcopal Church of St. Luke and St. evening recital. The opening concert of struments along Rochester’s main avenue Simon Cyrene. Rochester’s second church the convention will explore the spectrum — we begin in the nearby suburb of Pen- founded in 1817, which counted among of sounds of the Age of Enlightenment field. The “Opus 1” of an organbuilder is a its founding members Nathaniel Roch- using the resources of the 2008 GOArt/ historic moment indeed, and the 2016 Or- ester himself, the present structure from Yakota “Craighead-Saunders” organ. A tloff Organ Company, LLC, Op. 1 (II/24) at 1824 is the oldest public building still in process-reconstruction of a 1776 organ St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is the newest use in the City of Rochester. Here we can in Vilnius, Lithuania by Adam Gottlob addition to Rochester’s rich organ scene. appreciate Skinner’s desire for maximum Casparini — a student of one of Bach’s Jonathan Ortloff, a former Rochesterian dynamic range and coloristic spectrum preferred organbuilders, Tobias Heinrich himself, will be among us and will speak on a relatively small scale in his Op. 517 Gottfried Trost — its tremendous range to this unique moment in his career.