Estey Organ Museum

ROCKINGHAM ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE

Estey Organ Museum Members Contribute

Brattleboro, VT USA July 31, 2002 -- Estey Organ Museum members Barbara Winter and Ned Phoenix are lending a hand at this year's Rockingham Annual Pilgrimage on August 4th, 2002.

Winter will be playing an original Estey reed organ at 3pm at the Rockingham Meeting House, built in 1787 and located off Rt. 103. She plans to perform a Prelude, an Offertory, and a Postlude on the organ. Other perfomers at the event include the Sturbridge shape note singers performing a program of early New England hymns and similar music of the period from which the Meeting House dates. There will be some audience participation.

Phoenix, proprietor of Phoenix Reed Organ Resurrection, has spent some time examining the organ before the event to make sure it plays well. "It is an EsteyÊOrgan Company PhilharmonicÊOrgan, Style 114, Chapel Organ caseÊNo. 230732, " said Phoenix, "that wasÊ built in 1890, and tuned in 1891.ÊÊ It has 5 octaves, an F compass, and 6 sets of reeds. It is a great instrument with lots of reeds, a good variety of timbres, and lots of sound thatÊreverberates beautifully in the perfect acoustics of the Meeting House."

Working with other organizations is built into the operations of the museum. "In addition to building the museum, we feel it is important to restore reed and pipe organs that have the potential to be played for many more years," said Cindy Wilcox, President of Estey Organ Museum. "We want to give the public as many opportunities as possible to hear these remarkable instruments where they were intended to be heard."

You can find out more about the Estey Organ Museum by visiting its website at www.esteyorganmuseum.org.

For further information, interviews, or screenshots, please contact Christopher Grotke.

The Estey Organ Museum was founded in 2002 as a non-profit organization to celebrate the heritage of Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro, Vermont by the collection, restoration, display and performance of Estey and other organs; by the preservation, research, interpretation and dissemination of historical information about the company, its products and manufacturing practices, its owners, employees, markets, customers and competitors, and its effect in the context of Brattleboro and American history over time; and by the creation of a museum in which the aforementioned activities may occur.

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