NEW ORGAN AWAITS ST. MARY PARISHIONERS SUNDAY

Music at St. Mary Cathedral may sound a little sweeter this Sunday: a new organ designed especially for St. Mary Cathedral is being installed this week.

Service of the organ began Monday and the instrument is scheduled to be fully operational in time for church services Sunday.

In April 1990, Cindy Niswonger, head organist at the church, and Kathy Welker, choir director, launched a campaign to get a new organ for the church.

Niswonger said, "The organ we had never did work properly." Welker said, "It was purchased used and was never properly installed."

The new organ is a combination pipe organ and electronic organ and is manufactured by the Rodgers Organ Co. A vice president of the company will play the organ this Sunday for church services.

Niswonger and Welker said the combination organ was a good compromise between cost and sound.

"A pipe organ was out of reach costwise and an electronic organ doesn't have the sound of a pipe organ," Niswonger said. The Rodgers organ, which the congregation selected, is a combination of both.

The organ was designed by the company specifically for the church. Pipes for the organ were imported from Holland.

Once the parish decided to pursue a new organ, Niswonger and Welker launched a fund-raising campaign.

"People have been real enthusiastic," Niswonger said. "Within three weeks we had enough pledges to pay for it."

The new organ cost about $80,000. The closest similar organ is in St. Louis.

The old organ was in the front of the church while the new instrument is being installed in the choir loft.

Getting the organ into the loft presented a challenge, said Niswonger. "It took three weeks to decide how to get it upstairs," she said.

The organ is too large to carry up the stairs.

Parishioners David Pfeiffer and Tom Carr were charged with lifting the organ into the loft and making room for the new instrument.

A pipe scaffold was erected inside the church and the pieces are being hoisted into the loft.

To make room in the choir loft for the organ, a section of pews had to be removed. Also, the floor was lowered and a wall was erected as a backdrop for the pipes.

"All the renovation and work is being donated," Welker said.

Among those donating equipment and manpower are Columbia Construction, Drury Construction, Beaumont Structures, and RCM Services.

Niswonger, who tested a similar organ in St. Louis, said parishioners here Sunday should be able to notice a difference in the organ's sound.

"It should sound great," she said.