SOU’s 50th anniversary celebration of its pipe organ

(Ashland, Ore.) - There will be cake. There will be festivities marking a half-century milestone. And most certainly, there will be music.

Southern Oregon University will observe the 50^th anniversary of the SOU Music Recital Hall's Worth Harvey Pipe Organ - and the history behind it - with a celebration and concert at 2 p.m. on Friday, August 23. The massive and much-celebrated pipe organ itself will be at center stage.

"Come and hear the organ sing for this glorious occasion," said SOU professor emerita Margaret Evans, who will perform on the instrument that has framed her career. "The organ is truly the 'King of Instruments' and we hope the audience will enjoy the joyous sounds of organ music."

The concert and golden anniversary reception - with cake and punch - will be hosted by the SOU Foundation and the SOU Music Department. The performance, parking and reception are free and open to the public.

The performance by Evans, who continues to serve as an adjunct professor of organ at SOU, will showcase the unique qualities of the university's powerful and complex Worth Harvey Pipe Organ. Evans will play the organ's multiple keyboards, with feet flying across the pedals to cover bassline notes. The instrument's various "stops," or controls, will also create different "tonal colors," allowing Evans to produce sounds on a spectrum from bright and piercing to warm and mellow.

SOU's Music Recital Hall was still being planned in the late 1960s, when the chair of the Music Department lobbied for performance space to accommodate a pipe organ - even though the state of Oregon's appropriation for the building did not include funding for the instrument. The new Music Building and Recital Hall opened in 1972 with space for an organ, and Medford philanthropist Agnes Flanagan agreed to co-chair an organ fund-raising committee.

Flanagan, who was known as a tireless letter writer, immediately began tapping friends and acquaintances for contributions - and didn't hesitate to remind those whose pledges had not been paid. Donors who paid $50 or more were promised the opportunity to sign one of the organ's 2,000 pipes, - and 250 contributors qualified.

Worth Harvey, a Eugene and Cottage Grove banker, led the way by donating $40,000 of the instrument's total cost of $67,000. It was created by Seattle-based organ builder Balcom and Vaughan, and its console was updated in 2000 at a cost of $20,000. The SOU instrument would cost about $1 million if built today.

The organ was dedicated to Harvey, who was a 1906 alumnus of what was then Southern Oregon State Normal School, at a pipe-signing party on October 26, 1974. Initial recitals on the instrument were performed in December 1974 by Portland organist John Strege - the first in a long and ongoing string of renowned organists to play at SOU.

The Worth Harvey Pipe Organ served as the "host" instrument for the Northwest Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists in 1997, and has been used in church choir festivals, ensemble concerts and as a study instrument by many students.

Margaret Evans, who is SOU's fourth organ instructor since 1974, is currently dean of the Southern Oregon Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and a trustee of the SOU Foundation. She has played recitals and presented workshops throughout the country and has had a nearly 50-year career as an organist and choir director for a variety of churches.

Evans will open this month's anniversary concert with "Praeludium in G Major" by Nikolaus Bruhns, and will also include Bach's "Schmüke dich, o liebe Seele" and "Prelude and Fugue in D Major." The performance will continue with Kerensa Briggs' "Prelude on Pange Lingua" and "Variations on a Theme by Paganini for Pedals" by George Thalben-Ball, and will conclude with Louis Vierne' "Clair de Lune" and "Carillon de Westminster."

All upcoming 2024-25 SOU events, music and theatre performances are listed on the OCA website at https://oca.sou.edu/events.

-SOU-

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