The Carmel Pine Cone

8A The Carmel Pine Cone September 25, 2015
Grand pipe organ installed at C.V. church
By CHRIS COUNTS
A WEEK after all the parts — 5 tons of them —
were dropped off at St. Dunstan’s, the installation of the
Carmel Valley church’s new $700,000 pipe organ is
nearly complete. But now the organ will need tuning,
and the process could take up to a month.
No ordinary organ, the instrument was designed by
Dobson Pipe Builders of Lake City, Iowa. The company
made headlines two years ago when it won a worldwide
competition for the contract to build a new organ in a
13th century stone chapel at Merton College, which is
part of Oxford University in England. So rare and complicated
are the instruments,
Dobson has built
fewer than 100 of them
over the past four
$700,000 for
1,008 custommade
wood
and metal pipes
decades.
The story of how a
small church on
Robinson Canyon Road
came to acquire such an
extraordinary musical
instrument starts with
Steve Denmark, who
began playing the organ
at St. Dunstan’s after his
daughter, Jennifer, died
at 26 in a Big Sur car accident five years ago. The rector
of St. Dunstan’s, the Rev. Rob Fisher, told The Pine
Cone that playing music at the church proved to be a
healing experience for the grief-stricken father.
It was Denmark who first suggested that the church
replace its very ordinary electric organ with pipe organ
of a much higher quality — and price tag. When the idea
picked up steam, he and his wife, Karen, kicked off the
fundraising drive by making a generous $50,000 donation.
“Steve is not just a gifted musician,” Fisher said. “In
the midst of his own process of healing after a great
tragedy, he had a vision of a fine instrument gracing our
space. In some deep sense, this organ is a memorial to
Jennifer.”
The organ fund received a big boost when Denmark’s
brother, Tom, donated $70,000, and the church’s first
organist, the late Sallie Witter, left $71,000 in her will.
To date, a total of $450,000 has been collected, while an
additional $250,000 is being financed at an interest rate
Fisher called “very reasonable.”
When the parts and materials for the organ were
delivered, more than 30 church members joined four
builders in what resembled an old-fashioned barn-raising
party. Like all of Dobson’s instruments, the organ
was custom-designed to fit the church’s sanctuary.
“Every organ they build looks like none they’ve ever
built,” Fisher noted.
Understandably, Fisher is thrilled to watch the organ
come to life. It stands 20 feet high, and is 15 feet wide
and 9 feet deep. It has 1,008 pipes, some made of wood
and others made of metal. As the rector described them,
the pipes range from “the size of a tree” to “the size of
a drinking straw.”
“It complements the space very well,” he suggested.
“I had no idea it would be this beautiful. If it sounds half
as good as it looks, we will be in for a real treat.”
The rector is patiently awaiting the day when music
will fill the church’s sanctuary.
“The [month-long] tuning process starts this week,”
he explained. “We think we’ll start using it for services
in early November, but we’ll have to wait for the green
light.”
The arrival of the organ is good news not only for
church members who love music, but it’s also a boon for
two local music nonprofits, the Carmel Bach Festival
and Hidden Valley Music Seminars. Fisher said he has
talked to Bach Festival officials about staging concerts
at the church — Bach was, of course, an organist — and
he’s met with the folks at Hidden Valley about using the
sanctuary for organ classes.
While the organ will no doubt bring attention to St.
Dunstan’s, Fisher said he also believes the music played
on it will bring people closer to God “in a special way
that mere words cannot.”
The new organ at St. Dunstan’s Church (top right) towers
over Rev. Rob Fisher, while a technician works on assembling
it. Earlier, volunteers (right) unpacked its many parts,
which weighed about five tons. If all goes according to
plan, the 20-foot-high instrument will be ready to play in
November.
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