The Noack Organ Company celebrated the last stage of the workshop construction of their Opus 156 for the Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham, Alabama, on January 19 with a recital by Dan Lawhon, organist-choirmaster of the church. The firm’s assembly room was filled with 130 people, squeezed in to hear Leyding, Bach, Dandrieu, Buxtehude, Bach, Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Vierne, and Jehan Alain, along with Flor Peeters’ “Speculum vitae,” sung by soprano Sharon Lawhon.
Noack Opus 156 is a two-manual, 28-stop organ that will be housed at the front of the church. An off-center chamber that once housed an electro-pneumatic instrument is now receiving a new tracker organ. The unusual placement of the various components (chamber, chests, console, etc.) and the presence of multiple obstacles (HVAC) posed challenges in solving the trackers’ path. The simple lines of the church’s architecture called for a simple façade: a chromatic row of flamed copper pipes set at the left of the central cross visually balances the baptistery setting.
For information: www.noackorgan.com.
