Organ Information

For further information, email Stephen.Talley (or call the church office, ext. 108).

The church Sanctuary houses two pipe organs: a four-manual Aeolian-Skinner of 96 ranks and a two manual Schlicker of 37 ranks in the Gallery.

Specification of Sanctuary Organs here
 

The Chancel Organ, Aeolian-Skinner Opus 1196 was contracted in 1949. The instrument was built in the company’s factory in Boston, MA, and stored until the Covenant Sanctuary was completed in 1953. The organ was voiced by G. Donald Harrison, (pictured above )the President and Tonal Director of Aeolian-Skinner. The organ received minor revisions and several additions over the years.

In 1975, concurrent with the installation of the Gallery Schlicker Organ, the original Aeolian-Skinner console was replaced by a four-manual Schlicker console, capable of playing both the Chancel and Gallery Organs.

One of the two matching facades.

Richard Peek at the original console in early 1950’s.

The Gallery Organ

Installed in 1975, the two-manual, mechanical action instrument was given by Marion Nebel in memory of her husband, Mr. William Nebel. Hermann Schlicker, founder of the Schlicker Organ Company of Buffalo, New York, built the gallery organ as the final instrument before his death. The organ case is constructed of Honduran mahogany. The façade pipes are burnished copper and are adorned with rotating stars of the organs “zimbelstern.” The organ is North German in design the organ is especially suited to the music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries.

The Gallery Organ is playable from the Chancel console by means of electric pull-downs.  A dramatic horizontal Spanish trumpet was added to the organ in 1982, given by Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Berryhill, in honor of parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Scott Berryhill.

The organ in Morrison Chapel was originally built in 1885 by the firm of William Johnson and Son of Westfield, NY, for the old St. Mark’s Lutheran Church of Charlotte. It was revised, enlarged, and rebuilt in 1962 by the Schlicker Company for use in the Chapel. Like the Sanctuary Gallery Organ, it is mechanical in action and is particularly suited to music of the 18th and 19th centuries. The instrument contains 28 ranks, totaling 1,668 pipes.