THE STORY OF WESTMINSTER CHURCH’S PIPE ORGAN

Westminster Church is a Presbyterian congregation (PCUSA) organized in 1919, the product of the merger of three earlier Albany churches: Second Presbyterian, Third Presbyterian, and State Street Presbyterian, whose 1862 building the present congregation now occupies. The church has a rich musical tradition dating back at least as far as the 1890s, when the position of Organist at the State Street Church was occupied by Ferdinand Dunckley, one of the founders of the American Guild of Organists. Similarly, the history of Westminster’s pipe organ is both remarkable and unique.

Ernest M. Skinner (1866-1960) is considered by many to be the finest pipe-organ builder America has ever produced. His instruments are highly prized for their tonal beauty and exquisite workmanship. In 1929 Skinner installed his Opus 780, a four-manual instrument of 42 ranks, in Westminster Church after a fire the previous year had destroyed the church’s roof and interior, including its original 1863 Johnson organ. The Skinner organ served Westminster Church until 1976, when it was replaced by an electronic organ, due to the church’s inability at the time to fund some much-needed repairs. Fortunately the Skinner was not lost, but was moved to the nearby residence of church members Dr. Thomas and Anne Older, who preserved it by installing the Skinner in their home while keeping it tonally intact. When the church’s electronic instrument began to fail in the late 1990s, the Olders donated the Skinner back to the church, more than 20 years after it had been removed.

In 2000, Westminster Church engaged Austin Organs, Inc., of Hartford, Connecticut to refurbish and re-install the Skinner in its original chancel location, with the work being completed in May of 2003. The Chancel Organ’s 1929 stoplist was largely retained, the most significant alterations being a new 4-rank Mixture and 8’ Trumpet added to the Great. In addition, a 2’ Piccolo replaces a 4’ Unda Maris on the Choir, and a new Solo Cor Anglais and Swell Vox Humana (the latter from the old Echo Organ) were added to the Chancel stoplist. The original console was retained and rebuilt, placed on a moveable platform, and fitted with a computerized multiplex switching system and multi-level combination action.

Visually, the instrument’s most striking feature is its Austin 10-rank Antiphonal division situated in the rear gallery. With its casework designed by the noted British organ architect and author Stephen Bicknell, this division was added to the organ during the 2003 re-installation to help support congregational hymn-singing. The organ now encompasses 52 ranks of pipes distributed over its six divisions. It is tuned and maintained by the L. A. Carlson Company of East Greenbush, NY.

Since its return to the church, Skinner’s Opus 780 has quickly achieved wide recognition throughout the organ world. Shortly after its first dedicatory recital, performed by John Weaver (then organist at Manhattan’s Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and head of the organ departments at both the Juilliard School and Curtis Institute), the organ was prominently featured during the 2003 Region II Convention of the American Guild of Organists in a recital given by David Hill, Director of Music at St. John’s College, Cambridge, England. The organ was also showcased by the Organ Historical Society during its 50th Anniversary National Convention in June of 2006. Thomas Murray, Organ Professor at Yale University, performed a recital on the organ during that convention. In describing the event, the international organ journal, THE DIAPASON, praised it as "a great recital on a great organ!" And not long afterwards, WMHT-FM declared the organ’s restoration to be a "Great Moment in Classical Music."

Westminster Church is pleased to share this outstanding and historic pipe organ with the community through its series of concerts (3-4 per year) played by some of the world’s finest organists. We encourage you to return to Westminster Church again and again, to experience and enjoy the majestic beauty of this splendid instrument.