March 1996

J. F. Nordlie Co. Pipe Organ Builders
style='font-weight:normal'>, Sioux Falls, SD, has built a new organ, opus 27,
for Faith Lutheran Church, Prairie Village, KS. The contemporary architecture
of the church prompted a dramatic case design. Asymmetrical shapes in the room
suggested a balanced, angular silhouette. Disjunct ceiling planes necessitated
a single tower for the Pedal and a front/back arrangement for the Great/Swell.
The large painted case is softened by richly-hued light from the ceiling clerestory.

Australian National Carillon

A recital given by Suzanne Magassy marked the 25th
anniversary of the Australian National Carillon in Canberra on April 26, 1995.
Originally known as the Canberra Carillon, it was dedicated in 1970 by Queen
Elizabeth II who accepted the British Government's musical gift on behalf of
the Australian people. The inaugural recital was played by John Douglas Gordon,
Sydney University Carillonneur and later Canberra Carillonneur. Terry Vaughan's
Lake Music was written for the occasion.

Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis houses a four-manual Aeolian-Skinner organ of 108 ranks, the
firm's opus 892. The organ was installed in four stages from
1932-1935 in a large organ chamber located in the ceiling in front of the
proscenium arch. The organ remains fully intact, all original, unaltered,
mostly operational and an excellent representative of its style and era. One
can see and hear what the large civic concert hall pipe organ of an earlier
time is all about--it is impressive.

When Martin Neary succeeded Simon Preston as Westminster
Abbey's Organist and Master of the Choristers in 1988, a distinguished career
reached its logical (if dizzying) pinnacle. From his early years as a boy
chorister at the Chapel Royal, Saint James' Palace, through an organ
scholarship at Cambridge and several subsequent prestigious appointments
(notably St. Margaret's, Westminster and Winchester Cathedral), Neary's
achievements are the stuff of which church musicians dream.