St Paul’s Church, Piqua, Ohio

It was a short, but lovely drive to Piqua, Ohio in October, to explore and play their new four-manual Allen Quantum Organ with GeniSys technology.   This being my first time using this operating system, I was able to spend some time on a similar organ in Cincinnati, and found everything to be intuitive, easy-to-access, and easy to transfer to the organ in Piqua.  The organ was beautifully installed in the historic sanctuary and spoke easily into the room, surrounding and uplifting the congregation with the myriad of sounds available.  I chose to offer a program of psalms, hymn and spiritual songs, while demonstrating the various families of organ stops including English, German Baroque, French Romantic and American Classic.  We even had a little “seventh inning stretch” during the October concert, for the first ever St. Paul’s Piqua Chicken Dance, which I imagine no one ever could have imagined, but they enjoyed!  I also enjoyed playing a couple of hymns “It is Well” and “Joyful, Joyful” on their amazing 9 foot Falcone Concert Grand, quite a full sound for this sanctuary! Jane Vest is the organist who will “preside” over this instrument and I enjoyed meeting Jane and our conversation around many topics!

Thanks to Don Auberger and Seta Music and the congregation and leadership of St. Paul’s Piqua for the opportunity of presenting this new organ to the congregation and community!