Dear Tacoma AGO Members,

Happy All Saints’ Day and belated Happy Halloween to those who celebrate! 

The organ is alive here in Tacoma. This past Thursday night, over two hundred people of all ages came to Kilworth Chapel for Pipes Spooktacular. When asked for a show of hands, a substantial portion of the audience acknowledged they had never been to an organ concert. While we see decreasing trends in studying organ and attendance at mainline churches, various entities are exploring new ways of engaging with and sharing our instruments with the next generation. I encourage you to read this month’s article in The American Organist by Russell Weismann on rethinking the pipeline of organ study. In addition to holding a lot of history for study and performance, the organ, in a variety of venues, offers great opportunities for storytelling and engaging with audiences that don’t normally step foot in churches or students who explore academic majors outside of the concert hall.

Our first chapter event took place a couple weeks ago on October 18 and featured conversations around commissioning works and composing for the organ. The event was a joint event with the new Salish Sea Chapter of NACUSA (National Association of Composers USA). Click here to read more and see pictures from the event!

Your Sub Dean, Jay Murphy-Mancini, has developed a wonderful line up of social events and workshops for the rest of the program year. These events include:

• January 5: A Twelfth Night party at Paul Fritts’ house.
• February 8: A joint hymn-festival with the Olympia AGO Chapter at St. John’s Episcopal in Olympia. This will give opportunities for chapter members to sing and play hymns on the Schlicker/Bond organ. More details forthcoming. 
• March 13-14: A two-day series of joint events with Seattle AGO featuring Dr. Barbara Lister-Sink, one of the nation’s foremost pedagogues in playing with an injury-preventive keyboard technique. On March 13, we will hear her give a piano recital at St. Luke’s Episcopal in Renton. On March 14, She will give two substantial workshops in the chapel at Wesley Homes in Des Moines, focusing on biomechanics of the body, injury-prevention, along with opportunities to play the Fritts organ and receive feedback from her.
• April (date TBD): David Dahl will give a presentation on Georg Kaufmann’s Harmonische Seelenlust at PLU’s Lagerquist Hall. Details about participating in this workshop, including playing the Fritts organ, are forthcoming.
• May (date TBD): Share some of your favorite preludes and postludes from the liturgical year on the Aeolian-Skinner organ at Mason Methodist in a friendly, low-pressure environment. 
• June (date TBD): Annual, year-end picnic.

More details will be added to our Tacoma AGO calendar in due course. As always, check out the upcoming events on our calendar. Some highlights include Julia Brown at PLU, Tate Addis at St. Luke’s Memorial, UPS Keyboard Festival, and Paul Tegels and Svend Ronning at Christ Church. We have such an abundance of opportunities to share our beloved instrument with the greater Tacoma community! Thank you for being a member and I hope to see you at any number of these upcoming events!!

In music,
Wyatt