Hello all, and happy holidays!

      I'm happy to announce that the weekly noontime recital series at 
Third Baptist Church in St. Louis will be returning for its second year 
in the spring and fall of 2014.  These are a series of half-hour 
recitals every Friday at 12:30, begun as a celebration of the 
restoration of the church's 72-rank Kilgen-Moller organ.

      We have begun the process of filling the schedule and would like 
to invite recitalists who are in or can come to the St. Louis area to 
provide a program for the following dates:
March 7, 14, 28
April 4, 11, 18, 25
May 2, 9, 16, 23
September 5, 12, 19, 26
October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
Nov 7, 14, 21

      Each program is a half-hour and can be anything of the performer's 
choosing.  Photos and a specification of the organ can be found at 
http://www.third-baptist-organ.org/specification/. If you're interested, 
please email me privately for more information: [log in to unmask]

      Third Baptist is located in the Grand Center neighborhood of St. 
Louis.  The church was founded in 1850 and moved to its third and 
current location in 1884.  Once an affluent residential neighborhood, 
the convergence of public transportation lines in the area caused it to 
evolve into a busy commercial and entertainment district for the city of 
St. Louis.  After a fire in 1928, the church was remodeled in the style 
of the many nearby theatres. Today the neighborhood is still the center 
of the arts in St. Louis, with Powell Symphony Hall and Grand Center 
Arts Academy two blocks north, the Fox Theatre right across the street, 
Jazz St. Louis across the park next door, Craft Alliance's Grand Center 
gallery and classrooms a block away, and several artists' galleries and 
lofts nearby.  Founded in a time of turmoil between north and south, for 
over 160 years the church has maintained its membership in both the 
American and Southern Baptist conventions.

      A new Kilgen organ was built for the church after the fire. The 
complete instrument was to be 60 ranks, but only an initial 30 ranks 
were installed.  In 1947 a contract was signed with Moller to complete 
the organ, and later a new console was installed.  This organ served 
until it was removed, enlarged and rebuilt by the Reuter Organ Company 
of Lawrence, Kansas.  The rebuild included a new four-manual console 
built by Jim Schmidt of Alhambra, Illinois. One unique feature of this 
organ is a Tibia division which consists of one borrowed Kimball Tibia 
rank than was salvaged from the organ that once accompanied silent 
movies in the St. Louis Theatre, now Powell Hall.  Accompanied by an 
appropriate tremolo, this division gives the organ a very unique sound 
among church organs in St. Louis.

Brent Johnson

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