The 11th Carillon World Congress was held in Mechelen,
Belgium, August 9-13, 1998. The welcoming recital was performed in the tower of
St. Rombouts Cathedral by Jo Haazen, director of the Royal Belgian Carillon
School.
Pasi Organ Builders, Inc., Roy, Washington, has built a new organ for West Vancouver United
Church, British Columbia. The firm's Opus 10 comprises 31 stops, 38 ranks, and 1,851 pipes over two manuals and pedal, and features mechanical key and stop action. Most of the metal pipes are 97% lead; wood pipes are made from tulipwood. The case, standing 28 feet high, is made of cherry wood, with walnut inlays.
The University of Michigan's 38th Annual Conference on
Organ Music took place October 11-13, 1998. The conference began with
three consecutive organ degree recitals performed in Hill Auditorium by U of M
graduate students David Hufford, Edward Maki-Schramm, and Jeffrey Blersch.
Hufford performed the Ann Arbor premiere of William Albright's Flights of
Fancy and dedicated the performance to the memory of Albright, who had coached
him on the piece.
Martin Pasi trained at Rieger Orgelbau in Schwarzach, just six miles from his home, then discovered the fervor and passion of historic organ building in America. Ultimately he fulfilled his dream of becoming an organ builder near Tacoma, Washington, where he builds organs that are very much in the spirit of the old masters.
The Variations on a Recitative, op. 40, is Arnold Schoenberg’s final and most extensive keyboard work, and his only completed work for organ. It was published by the H. W. Gray Co. in 1947, after six years of quarrelsome negotiations.
