Schantz Organ Company, Orrville, Ohio, has completed the relocation of a 70-rank organ for St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, Norman, Oklahoma. Similar to the story of its neighboring parish, St. Thomas More, St. Mark’s obtained the instrument in 2014, and Schantz was initially engaged to provide a new mechanism. Schantz assumed the entire project as it evolved under the leadership of Adam Pajan, director of music.
I’ve come to believe that at least a few people read these columns. Witness a question I recently got from an acquaintance, to wit: Is Norman a university with a
Noah Smith is appointed organ scholar at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He will accompany the choirs on the organ, Schoenstein Opus 173, under the mentorship of music director Joseph Arndt. Smith is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma pursuing degrees in organ and piano performance, studying with Adam Pajan and Jeongwon Ham.
David Murray, retired church leader at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Kapa‘a
When the Kapa‘a church first opened in 1925, a member of the prominent Wilcox family donated the organ to the congregation.
“Over the years, it suffered from the humidity, the salt, air and all those kinds of things. In the 1980s, the first remodel was done and at that time it was expanded from 316 pipes to 422,” said retired church leader David Murray.
Around 2015, they started having problems with it again so the church decided to decommission and restore the organ. Murray said he has been there for every step of the process.