The third season of the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival was announced today.  Check out all the events here.

The second season of the Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival was announced this week to media. Check out all the events here.

"I've gone inside the organ case 3 times now!", beamed one of the young attendees of Stephen Warner's organ demonstration on Saturday. As a kick-off to the February events of the Ypsilanit Pipe Organ Festival, a duo of organ demonstrations was offered, which introduced the inner workings of a pipe organ - construction, sound production and how different sounds are produced. Warner, in his inviting and knowledgeable presentations, delighted both children and adults as they listened intently and learned about the mysterious things behind the golden pipe facade at First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti. All attendees were able to go behind the facade and into the pipe chamber to see and experience first-hand the complexity in construction of the instrument, and to gain a better appreciation for how an organ functions and makes sound.

The musical story of the new Ott organ in First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti began happily yesterday, as celebratory sounds were made during the Sunday Dedication service, and the highly-anticipated afternoon concert by John Weaver. An audience of over 200 packed the nave of the 152-year old church.

From the sweetness of a transcription of Bach's Jesu, joy of man's desiring to the foreboding vehemence of Franck's Pièce Héroïque, to the jazzy rompings of his arrangement of the hymn tune 'Sine Nomine', Dr. Weaver stunned and captivated audiences with his elegant phrasing, sensible tempos, and incredible technique. 3 live camera feeds projected close-ups of his hands and feet as they flew over the organ's 3 manuals and pedals.

The audience was composed of people hailing from a large radius surrounding the town of Ypsilanti, including Ann Arbor, Flint, Detroit, Rochester, and Toledo.

The long-awaited dedication weekend for the Doris Milliman Pipe Organ in the First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti has finally arrived. All throughout the week, excitement built as parishioners, ministers, musicians, and organ builders scrambled to make all things ready for this historical weekend for the church.

On Monday and Tuesday, Pastor Keith Geiselman and Elder Jim Curran were busy at the local print shop in Ypsilanti, proofing the final draft of the organ dedication's memorial booklet. 12 pages long, it features letters from one of the two organ consultants (Gordon McQuere), the organ committee, from the builder (Martin Ott), and from the organist (Aaron Tan). Also included are the many financial donors who have, throughout the past 7 years, made monetary contributions that have finally brought the project to full fruition. A special page is dedicated to Doris Milliman, whose Estate had contributed a major gift at the very beginning of the project.

On Wednesday, Martin Ott arrived to finish the final touches on the organ. 15 pedal reed pipes from Portugal arrived along with him in a heavy 200-pound wooden case. Final electronic bug fixes were done as Ott worked tirelessly from 7am to 9pm each day. The organ was in almost perfect tune for the first time, after the ventilation in the room had been fixed by the installation of two ceiling fans. These fans would circulate the air more evenly, eliminating the temperature difference occuring between differing altitudes, which otherwise would cause some pipes to expand unevenly, thus causing a distortion in tuning.

Thursday evening saw the highly-anticipated arrival of guest artist John Weaver and his wife, Marianne. Getting off the Ann Arbor train station, he was treated to a fine dinner at the Gandy Dancer with Stew and Carolyn Work, two Festival committee members. Afterwards, Dr. Weaver headed to the church to hear and play the completed instrument for the first time. Some students who were preparing for the master class were also practicing on the organ that evening, and had the opportunity to meet him.

Today, Dr. Weaver has devoted much of the day to practicing for the 3pm dedication concert on Sunday. Organist Aaron Tan will be busily preparing the Saturday workshop handout materials and the Sunday concert program booklet. The concert is expected to feature live projected camera feeds of Dr. Weaver's hands and feet, which will offer audiences much better visibility of the player.

As if the past 7 years were a long musical Advent for the congregation of Ypsilanti's First Presbyterian Church, rich organ sounds were finally heard on Christmas Eve to the delight of parishioners in attendance. Resident organist Aaron Tan, along with violinist Daniel Clegg and singers Audrey Kline and Kate Wakefield, offered a recital featuring the new instrument. Selections included settings of In dulci jubilo by Andriessen and Bach, 'I wonder as I wander', the Christmas movement of Dupré's Passion Symphony, and of course, his Variations on a Noel, Op. 20. The Lessons and Carols service immediately followed the recital. To reinforce the certain impact that this new instrument is having on the congregation, many commented afterwards on how the full sound gave them encouragement and support to sing the numerous carols chosen for that evening.

A few weeks before, co-organ consultant Dr. Gordon McQuere flew in from Topeka, Kansas to meet with Ott and discuss technical issues. Before being appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of Washburn University in Kansas, McQuere had been Head of the Department of Music at Eastern Michigan University for many years. An avid organ music lover, Dr. McQuere has commissioned numerous church and university organs across the country.

Mr. Ott and associate Bill Dunaway are scheduled to return to Ypsilanti in mid-January to do the final tuning and adjustments to ensure that the organ is in pristine condition for the highly-anticipated dedication January 24-25 weekend with concert organist John Weaver.

Organ consultant John Weaver visited the First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti yesterday, and met with Martin Ott to discuss final voicings that the organ will receive this coming week. Dr. Weaver, former organ chair of the Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music for over three decades, described the new console as "incredibly user friendly". The 3-manual console was designed with practicality in mind, especially with its uniquely low height, which allows an organist to direct a choir with less effort than with other taller organ consoles. The stops and pistons are also placed in close proximity to the keyboards, enabling the organist to reach for clusters of stops with ease.

Weaver returns to Ypsilanti in January 2009 to play in the Dedication Service on January 24, at 10am, and the Dedication Concert following it at 3pm.

A front-page article on the pipe organ building project at First Presbyterian church of Ypsilanti (FPCY), as well as the quickly approaching Ypsilanti Pipe Organ Festival (YPOF), was printed in the Community section of the Ann Arbor News today. Check out the full article at here.

In just over one week, Martin Ott and his team of 4 or 5 have completely installed the main guts of the new pipe organ at First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti. Over 20 congregation members helped out in assisting the builders move five tons of pipe metal/wood, bellows, organ console, and swell shutters into the nave of the church. The congregational support for the organ project, which has gone on for over 7 years now, has been oustanding. Keith Geiselman, Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti, called it a "simple stewardship of our tradition".

For the greater part of November, builder Martin Ott will return again to voice the new instrument - that is, to make it sound just right in the room: not too loud, not too soft. The voicing will be presided over by organist John Weaver (former Juilliard/Curtis organ department chair), who has been giving consistently superb direction to the entire organ building project, from the initial selection of a builder, to console design, and finally to tonal direction.

The small 2-manual Howell organ that has served the church for the past 7 years, as a temporary instrument, is finally being disassembled and placed in storage once again. Martin Ott and company are expected to arrive some time next week with a truckload containing all the parts for the new organ, which will be assembled in early October.