3/27/98
ATHENS, Ohio -- Two public concerts are planned in April to introduce the community to a new 1,200-pipe organ in Galbreath Chapel on Ohio University's Athens campus.
Built by Gene Bedient of Lincoln, Neb., one of the country's most well-regarded builders of mechanical action or tracker organs, the instrument will be used for School of Music concerts, lessons and practice sessions. The new $350,000 organ replaces a 28-rank Moeller organ, the console of which had been located in the chapel's balcony.
"With the removal of both the original organs from Memorial Auditorium and Galbreath Chapel, this new instrument will be the primary organ for applied study within the School of Music," said Roger Stephens, director of the School of Music. "Gene Bedient has given us a magnificent quality instrument that will serve the university and community for many years."
Galbreath Chapel, built in 1957, was a gift to the university from the late John Galbreath, a 1920 alumnus. It is dedicated to the memory of his wife, Helen Mauck Galbreath, who graduated from the university in 1919. The organ's purchase was made possible by the Galbreaths' daughter, Jody Galbreath Phillips, and her late husband, J. Wallace Phillips, who shared the cost of the instrument with the university. Jody Phillips, a 1946 Ohio University alumna, served on the university's Board of Trustees from 1970 to 1979.
The organ's case, made of painted poplar and mahogany, was designed to look original to the chapel. Most of the 23 sets of pipes are made of tin and lead while a small number are of poplar and mahogany.
In the first public concert featuring the new organ, Ohio University Assistant Professor of Music Paul Barte will perform at 8 p.m. April 16. His program will include works by Nicolaus Bruhns, J.S. Bach, Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen and Cesar Franck.
David Boe, a professor of organ at the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, will perform at 4 p.m. April 26. His concert will include works by Dieterich Buxtehude, Bach, William Bolcom and Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens.
Free tickets for the concerts will be available beginning April 1 on a first-come, first-serve basis at the Kantner Hall Box Office, which is open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Because the chapel can accommodate only about 150 people, no more than two tickets per person will be distributed at the box office.