The Lee Conklin Antique Organ and History Museum in Hanover, Michigan and the Heiss Haus Museum in Nashville, Michigan were joint hosts for a two-day festival and officers' meeting of the Reed Organ Society on the weekend of April 28-29, 2001. Throughout the nearly twenty-year history of the Society, members have gathered for such festivals at any number of locations, including music museums in Deansboro, New York; Kilkenny, Ireland; and Saltaire, England. But this year's event provided a rare opportunity for all four of the Society's officers and the Reed Organ Society Quarterly's editor to meet and conduct an official business meeting in person.
Due to the vast geography of the Reed Organ Society, which boasts members on every continent, encounters of many members in one place are exceptional but welcome. During this meeting in Michigan, the special connection of these individuals which was extremely evident: people of like interests gathered together, eager to meet one another. Although conversations abounded, there seemed to be little real need for talking. Because of the affection ROS members share for these beautiful old instruments, some one hundred festival participants -- from as far away as England -- assembled in a room filled with them to play and to listen and to collectively experience the harmony and the camaraderie that make the Society successful. This innate understanding and enthusiasm was a theme extending through the entire weekend.
Each of these museums boasts more than one hundred playable reed organs, and many of them were demonstrated in performances scheduled throughout the two-day event. In addition, on Saturday evening some fifty people visited Fayette, Ohio to enjoy the rare three-manual-and-pedal Mason & Hamlin organ restored by Don Glasgow and installed in the hundred-year-old Opera House there. Throughout the day on Saturday, a café set up by the Conklin Museum volunteers served meals and snacks to attendees.
Festival performers who played and demonstrated the instruments included Agnes Armstrong, Frances Hartmann and several of her students, Celia Hastings, Terry Jankowski, Ron Leinweber, Margaret Newhouse, Beverly and Nelson Pease, Ian Thompson with his wife Akiko and daughter Dolly, and Jim Tyler.
Hands-on restoration workshops were presented by Don Glasgow and John Hastings. Outside in the open air, mechanical band organs and hurdy-gurdies were set up and played by Bob Cantine and Jerry Jordan.
The annual meeting of the officers was held in person -- most likely for the first time in the history of the Society -- on Saturday morning. Attending were President Agnes Armstrong (Altamont, New York), Vice-President James Tyler (San Francisco, California), Secretary Keith Heiss (Nashville, Michigan), Treasurer James Quashnock (Witchita Falls, Texas), Editor Nelson Pease (Palmer, Massachusetts), and Councillor Coleman Kimbrell (Florence, Alabama).
Plans were set in motion to hold another such meeting and festival two years from now. Persons interested in further information about the Reed Organ Society may send inquiries to:
James Quashnock, ROS Membership Chairman
3575 State Highway 258 E
Wichita Falls, TX 76310-7037 (USA)
or visit the official ROS website at: < http://sponsor.globalknowledge.nl/ros >
Respectfully submitted,
Agnes Armstrong
