Organ debuts tomorrow

Here's the new Fritts organ at St Philip, as it looked on Wednesday of this past week, just after the last carvings on the facade were installed. Visually it's really stunning, and will look even better once we get the side walls and the ceiling repainted a slightly darker color in the next few weeks.

It's started to make some noise, too! Tomorrow will be the first day to use a few ranks of pipes in church, and we'll be hearing steadily more of it over the next two months, as tonal finishing progresses.

It's Here!

The new Fritts organ for St Philip Presbyterian arrived on Sunday, and a very eager crowd of St Philippians plus a number of local friends spent the afternoon unloading the truck, bit by bit, until the sanctuary was covered in organ parts. The instrument is now taking shape rather quickly in the rear gallery, thanks to Paul Fritts, Bruce Shull and the rest of their hardworking crew. I was delighted to see the top go on the case today; it fit under the ceiling by about 5 inches. Good measuring, Paul!

Houstonians are welcome to stop by and observe the progress over the next week or so. Everything should be in the case by next weekend, then the process of voicing begins. The latter should be finished by mid-March, with any luck, and we'll be sampling the finished stops every Sunday morning during church.