Overtones

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Schedule

10:00 a.m. Vail Chapel, Northwestern University, Evanston

11:00 a.m. Garrett Theological Seminary, Evanston

Noon (Lunch on your own)

1:00 p.m. St. Athanasius Catholic Parish, Evanston

2:00 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, Wilmette

Northwestern University, Vail Chapel

Evanston, IL

With the removal of Seabury-Western Seminary from its campus on Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois, the property, including its Chapel, has been purchased by Northwestern University. The two-manual, mechanical-action Casavant has been relocated from the Seminary’s Saint John the Divine Chapel to Vail Chapel, on the campus of Northwestern University, immediately east of Alice Millar Chapel. The Casavant replaces a much-rebuilt 1860 E. & G. G. Hook opus 260, of two manuals, which was relocated to Vail Chapel in 1969. According to the OHS Pipe Organ Database, the Casavant was built for Our Savior Lutheran Church of Rockford, Illinois. It was moved to Evanston by Kurt Roderer in 1998. The specification below comes from the OHS Database.

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Evanston, IL

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary is the result of the merge of three historic institutions. The Garrett Biblical Institute was the first Methodist seminary to be established in the Midwest in 1853. Garrett has had close ties to adjacent Northwestern University during its many years of activity in Evanston. The Chicago Training School, found in 1885 to train women for work in ministry fields, merged with Garrett in 1934. The Evangelical Theological Seminary, once located in Naperville, was found in 1873 as the Union Biblical Institute to train men for ministry in the Evangelical (later Evangelical United Brethren) Church. Merger with Garrett occurred in 1974, when the combined school took its present name. Funds for founding Garrett came from the estate of Eliza Garrett, wife of Chicago mayor Augustus Garrett. Both were members of what is now Chicago’s First United Methodist Church, the Chicago Temple. Dempster Hall, the first building erected for the school in Evanston, was in use on January 1, 1855. The present structure of Gothic influence was commenced in 1923 to the designs of Edward A. Renwick and finished the following year. An addition that included the present chapel was completed in 1952. The first organ in this space was assembled by the Reuter Organ Company of Lawrence, Kansas, and installed by their Chicago representative, Frank C. Wichlac & Son. The gift of Evanston’s well-known organ architect, William H. Barnes, it was installed in chambers at either side of the chancel. The three-manual instrument consisted of thirty-one ranks. While Reuter provided the console and chassis as well as some pipework for their Op. 1020, most of the pipes came from the 1886 Roosevelt Op. 299, of two-manuals, twenty-two ranks, formerly in the First Congregational Church of Evanston, which was replaced in 1927 by Skinner Organ Company Op. 616. Additional ranks of pipes were also drawn from an Aeolian Organ Company residence organ. Fr. Barnes played the dedicatory recital on September 30, 1952. The present organ was built by Casavant Frères, Limitée, of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada, as their Op. 3707, a three-manual organ of forty ranks. The organ is the gift of Murray H. and Dorothy C. Leiffer in memory of their son, Donald J. Leiffer. Chest action is electric slider.

St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church

Evanston, IL

St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church was organized in 1921. A Combination church-school building was constructed on the present property the following year. Ground was broken for the present church of Lannon stone in English Gothic style in 1936, and it was dedicated in 1937. The parish has been served by three pipe organs. In the early 1930s, the Geo. Kilgen & Son firm of Saint Louis, Missouri, installed a two-manual, self-contained unit instrument in the 1922 building, Op. 5307. In 1937, a Kilgen organ, Op. 5940, was placed in a chamber adjacent to the choir loft of the present church. (This organ may have included all or part of Op. 5307. In 1999, Karl Wilhelm, Inc., of Mont St. Hilaire, Quebec, Canada, finished their Op. 147, a two-manual instrument placed in the choir loft, framing a large stained-glass window. The Swell and Great divisions are in the right case, with the Pedal division in the left. Key action is mechanical; stop action is electric. Winding is flexible. Manual compass is 56 notes; pedal compass is 32 notes.

Above: Karl Wilhelm 1998 keydesk at St. Athanasius Roman Catholic Church, Evanston, IL (photo by James Brian Smith)

Above: First Presbyterian Church, Wilmette, IL (photo by Robert Woodworth)

First Presbyterian Church

Wilmette, IL

The organ in First Presbyterian Church in Wilmette was built by the Hall Organ Company of West Haven, Connecticut, and installed and voiced by Kenneth Butler of Maywood, Illinois in 1937. The instrument was altered in 1980 by James E. Gruber with John Peters serving as organ design consultant. The Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Connecticut supplied a new console.  Devon Hollingsworth played the following recital on November 9, 1980:

Sonata I in E minor [sic]                                                             Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Paso en Do major                                                                       Narcis Casanovas (1747-1799)

Toccata in G minor                                                                   Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707)

Allegro vivace (Symphonie V)                                                   Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)

Toccata and Fugue in D minor                                             Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Variations on “America”                                                                        Charles Ives (1874-1954)

Fugue from “How Brightly Shines the Morning Star”                                Max Reger (1873-1916)