MADISON — Enter the quiet chapel at Holy Name Heights, walk down the aisle, then turn and look to the balcony. The pews are gone, and an organ console is visible. That’s different. Otherwise, not much to see, nothing all that remarkable.
Yet, there is now something truly noteworthy in the choir loft. Behind a wall of organ swell shades are the pipes and inner workings of a superb instrument, an Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, old and used, but newly restored and installed in the chapel.
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| At the Advent/Christmas party sponsored by the Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities are, from left: Katie Gorman, one of the newest members of the Madison Diocesan Choir; her father, Dr. Patrick Gorman, director of the choir for over 25 years; and Pat Paska, a member of the choir since its beginning nearly 45 years ago. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
MADISON — Much as O Come All Ye Faithful is a favorite known by all since childhood, the opening hymn of Lessons & Carols will become a glorious new sound Sunday, Dec. 17.
That’s when Dr. Patrick Gorman directs the Madison Diocesan Choir and all present, accompanied by a classic pipe organ described as magical, restored, and installed in the Holy Name Heights chapel.
“I have literally been working on this since I arrived in Madison,” said Gorman, now in his 26th year as director. “We put together so many different proposals, and it’s always been, ‘We can’t afford it! We can’t afford it.’
“New pipe organs are extraordinarily expensive. Then we started to look at organs that have come out of churches.”
With the help of Bruce Case of Case Pipe Organ Company in Verona, an exceptional pipe organ was found in Kenosha at the First Congregational Church that closed in 2013.
Though silent for years, the organ was in surprisingly good condition. The new owners, an evangelical congregation, had no use for it and agreed to sell it.
Thanks to a generous gift from the estate of the late Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer, the Diocese of Madison was able to buy and restore the pipe organ, built by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company in Boston nearly 70 years ago.
According to Case, it rivals the commanding Klais organ in the Madison Overture Center, and in some respects is superior.
