After years of waiting, Evansville church to receive massive cathedral pipe organ

EVANSVILLE – After years of planning, the St. Benedict Cathedral is making headway on its new Cathedral pipe organ.

And for everyone involved, it's a great experience to see what the future looks like for the cathedral after a decade of planning for the move.

"We've been talking about it for quite a while knowing that the instrument that was here was getting tired," said Jeremy Korba, St. Benedict Cathedral's music director. "It was too small for what the (worship) of the Catholic Church had become and as it evolved."

The work began as planning and bidding to some of the top organ builders in the country who could bring the church's vision to life. Officials ultimately selected Parsons Pipe Organ Builders , out of Canandaigua, New York to head the project.

Led by president and fourth-generation organ builder Ric Parsons, the company is known for its "fussiness" over sound. Now that they had the constructor, the church's focus shifted from focusing on funds and what renovations could be done before the organ could be built.

Even with funding still in the works, they proceeded with the renovations to fit more to the cathedral. They didn't have to wait much longer as an anonymous donor, not a part of the parish, believed that the space deserved a better organ.

With a name like Parsons attached to it, and an ability to create something large for the space and community, they designed one of the largest organs this area has seen, Korba said.

St. Benedict Cathedral

Construction of St. Benedict Cathedral's present church building began in 1913 and was completed in 1928. It can seat over 900 people, has 65-foot ceilings, and a baldachin, or ornate canopy, over the altar.

In 1943, the church received the organ as a donation from the Fendrich Family Cigar Company. It was worth $3,000 at the time, which is about $54,000 now.

For the new organ, the church decided to go big or go home. The project will comprise of two organs: the nave organ and the gallery organ.

The nave will be located in the front of the cathedral in a custom chamber. It will have eight voices, 27 stop controls, and 8 sets of pipes for a total of 560 pipes. It's set to be used to support smaller gatherings in the front and accompany clergy and cantors.

The gallery organ, the larger of the two, will be placed on the balcony at the back of the church. It contains 51 voices, 82 stop controls, and 62 sets of pipes for a total of 3,780 pipes. Some of these pipes stretch to 32 feet: the size of the entire balcony.

Together the whole organ will have 4,340 pipes, and a few extra tidbits not seen by the naked eye. The previous organ only had 27 sets of pipe compared to the 70 that this new one will have.

What the next few steps are

For Korba, this is a big but exciting shift for him.

As the organist, he has a lot to learn. Similar to a pilot logging hours, he has to sit there and understand each rank and sound.

"Every instrument and every pipe organ is unique," he said. Always taking in his surroundings, mastering times to use certain keys, and developing that new muscle memory in a new space. will be critical. "So there's just a lot of time to be spent on learning how best to make use of what's there."

Compared to playing a regular piano that has only one keyboard and has one adjustable sound, here he has to learn several new keyboards and different sounds and stops. But the approaching monthslong journey excites him.

When he's not focused on the new sound, he's been organizing volunteers for the last few weeks as they unpack trucks from Parsons. The instrument was too large to transport as whole after the team built it in the workshop to make sure that everything worked properly, so they dismantled it and transported it to the cathedral in 54-foot trucks.

Volunteers, both from the parish and not, have spent weeks helping them unpack all the materials needed to rebuild the organ. Parsons is going to do a lot of the casework and building of the organ before the sound experts come in to check each individual pipe to make sure everything works.

"This is the biggest organ we've done and the biggest room we've built in," said Parsons. "This is just a really exciting opportunity."

What this means for the church

Volunteer Ron Siersing is a member of the cathedral and a teacher off work for the summer. And couldn't think of a better way to spend a few weeks than helping the church get the organ together.

"I didn't have any other reason not to do it," he said.

His favorite part has been watching how this has brought a lot of people together. As a part of the choir, the thought of hearing the floor rumble from the sound of the organ is what he's most looking forward to.

Another volunteer, Bob Wuertz, agrees.

"We're just really excited about the opportunity to receive this tremendous gift to the cathedral and anything we can do to help that along is something we're happy to do," he said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: After years of waiting, Evansville church to receive massive cathedral pipe organ