Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ to announce capital campaign today

I wrote a story about two months ago in which the organization Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ proposed a $2.5 million renovation plan to the city council. The proposal called for the city, which owns the majestic instrument, to take out a $1.5 million bond to help fund the project.

(The annual bond payments are proposed to be covered by a $2 surcharge on tickets for shows at Merrill Auditorium, where the 1912 organ is located.)

The Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ will announce a capital campaign to cover the rest of the costs today, appropriately, during the intermission of today’s 3 p.m. concert with the Choral Art Society “And the Glory: Masterpieces for the Chorus and Organ.”

A city news release describes the need for extensive repairs thusly:

The heart of the instrument, a Universal Windchest, which supports 6,800 pipes, has been patched, plugged, taped and caulked and is close to giving out, requiring much needed repairs. Other improvements include cleaning and restoring the pipes and engineering updates to the wind system.

Here’s how I described the work that needs to be done when I wrote about the organ back in early September, using information provided by Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ in a report to the council:

The project will involve disassembling and moving the 50-ton organ for the third time in its history, this time all the way to Tolland, Conn., where Foley Baker Inc. will perform the painstaking work. In addition to a rebuild of the wind chest — in which 92 people theoretically can fit even when the organ is being played — the scope of the project includes cleaning and restoration of the instrument’s nearly 6,900 pipes as well as what a city announcement called “engineering updates to the wind system.”

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.