New organ to reside in IMU

For the past three weeks, Jacobs School of Music lecturer David Kazimir’s office in the music school has been replaced by a 10-ton, 2,838-pipe, solid black walnut
organ.

“It’s a great big tree house with pipes,” said Kazimir, who is also the IU curator of organs and carillons. “It’s an exquisite piece of art on its own, but the instrument as a whole is beautiful.”

Officially named Opus 91, the organ is currently being installed in Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union. Kazimir, along with workers from the organ design and building company C.B. Fisk, has spent more than 60 hours per week assembling the giant instrument since March 2.

“For the past four months of my life, I’ve been working on this organ,” Kazmir said. “It’s a great heritage of Western musical history, and it’s significant we have the chance to have it at the Union.”

After acquiring the instrument with collaboration from the Jacobs School of Music, the IMU and the office of the president of IU, Kazimir and C.B Fisk disassembled the organ in February 2012 and then placed it in storage in Bloomington until Alumni Hall was prepared for its official installation.

Though Kazimir did not release specific information regarding the cost of the organ, he did say a grant from an anonymous donor will help cover the installation costs.

The organ’s installation in Alumni Hall is part of a larger renovation of the roughly 80-year-old IMU gathering space. Under construction since last fall, new floors and walls have been put in, along with a new sound and lighting system and modifications to the balcony where the organ is currently being built.

Kazimir said general construction of the organ will be completed by the end of March in time for construction crews to put the final touches on Alumni Hall
renovations.

“Its an incredible instrument, and visually it’s stunning,” said Bruce Jacobs, executive director of the IMU and an overseer of the renovation. “It’s a piece of art within itself.”

Opus 91 was purchased from the family of its original owner, Jacques Littlefield, who had the organ built for his private concert hall in Portola Valley, Calif., before he died.
 
“When he died, we didn’t know what was going to happen to it,” said Greg Bover, C.B. Fisk project manager for the organ, who also worked on its original construction in 1987. “So to have it come here and be in the hands of this faculty and the students that will go through here over the next couple of generations, that’s pretty special.”

Since the Jacobs School of Music has the largest organ department in the nation with 44 organ majors, three full-time staff and an organ curator, Kazimir said the organ will be utilized for teaching, practice, concerts and even weddings and ceremonies in the IMU.

“It’s a very comprehensive instrument and a second concert organ for the students of the school of music to use,” Kazimir said. “Now it’s at the center of the
campus.”

Following the completion of Alumni Hall, Kazimir and his organ-building team will return to tune and adjust the organ to match with the acoustic environment.

“The organ was originally finished for a much smaller space, but we want the sound to fill this room,” Kazimir said. “We’re going to take the time to listen to individual pipes. It’s like a choir rehearsal — one singer at a time.”

While Alumni Hall is being updated with modern sound and lighting technology, Opus 91 is a glimpse into music history. Using a mechanical key and stop action system used in organs before the invention of electricity, air passing through the instrument’s pipes can fill an entire hall with sound — no speaker required.

“The pipes range in size from that of a pencil to over 32 feet and produce sounds that span the breadth of human hearing,” Kazimir said. “It’s a subwoofer driven by air — a modern synthesizer.”

Despite long hours among buzzing drills, steel pipes and dark wooden beams that skim the ceiling, Kazimir and the team said they are enjoying the long process leading to Cream and Crimson Weekend on June 6 and 7, when Alumni Hall will be dedicated.
Kazimir said the moment the rush of air passes through the organ’s pipes is
unforgettable.

“It’s like a new baby taking its first breath,” he said. “It comes to life.”