This story was first published in Classical KC's "Take Note" newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox the first Wednesday of every month.
Kansas City is a pipe organ town, with over a hundred instruments throughout the metro and a solid community of pipe-rattlers who revel in the magnificent power of the world’s largest instrument.
Famous musicians got their start on Kansas City organs, like composer/critic Virgil Thomson, who played for both church services at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral and for theaters around town, and William “Count” Basie, who performed for silent movies at the Eblon Theater before taking over Bennie Moten’s band.
Each pipe organ is unique, integrated with the architecture of its housing structure, and impresses both the ears and the eyes. Sometimes called the “king of instruments,” there are concert organs, church organs, and theater organs (and in a jazz town like Kansas City, we can’t forget the iconic Hammond B-3 organ, either.) There’s even an organ at the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium, too, though it isn’t played much these days.
Rediscover the City of Fountains with a tour of a few of the instruments that make Kansas City a "pipe organ town."
Gilded treasures
Kansas City has a robust chapter of the American Guild of Organists, a national organization that promotes, supports, and encourages organ performance and education. The Greater Kansas City Chapter of AGO was founded in 1938 and has over 150 members.
Organist and Grammy Award-nominee Jan Kraybill, who joined KCAGO in 1986, is a frequent on-air guest to Classical KC. She said, “They have nurtured me throughout my career and I've gotten to nurture younger organists through this same guild. I feel very connected to these people, they are precious to me."
Both the organ curious and organ enthusiast can find information about education, organ news, and events, including the upcoming French Organ Music Festival, now in its 12th year, at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, which was founded by Cathedral music director Mario Pearson. The concert, which includes performances by many KCAGO members, is played on the Ruffatti Pipe Organ.
The KCAGO website lists 60 local organs, including the oldest at Rainbow Mennonite Church (a restored 1869 E. & G.G. Hook organ, installed in 2004) to the one of the newest area organs at Village Presbyterian Church, Opus 22 built in 2016. Elisa Williams Bickers is the principal organist at Village Pres and has played organ since she was 12 years old. “It can create such gentleness or such power,” she told KCUR.
To help educate kids about the pipe organ, KCAGO has a traveling marionette show, and from time to time hosts workshops to help encourage young musicians to test out the somewhat intimidating instrument.
A Sound for the Ages
Theater organs used to be a staple of the performing arts scene, particularly for silent movies, but as sound technology advanced, these instruments (expensive to maintain and requiring skilled musicians to operate) fell into disrepair and nearly to extinction.
Fortunately, Kansas Citians can still experience that all encompassing sound with the 1927 Robert-Morton Theatre Pipe Organ at the Music Hall, a gorgeous instrument white with gold embellishments. It was first housed in the Midland Theatre, but was saved, moved, and restored by the Kansas City Theatre Pipe Organ in 1995.
Periodically, you can see classic films from the Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin era performed here, the organist creating an improvised score and adding sound effects to accompany the film’s action…literally with “all the bells and whistles.”
KCUR’s Julie Denesha spoke with organist Marvin Faulwell ahead of a showing of the 1924 “Peter Pan” in 2023, who said, "The Music Hall is a great organ, and everything just goes up a notch when you're there.”
Hear the organ in action for a free performance on September 15, featuring Faulwell performing live for Buster Keaton’s “College.” KCTPO also presents a December show: Holiday Follies at the Music Hall.
A Halloween tradition in Kansas City is the annual silent movie and organ performance in Helzberg Hall, featuring Dorothy Papadakos. This year, she’ll perform live for the 1922 film “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror,” on October 23. (Note: the Kansas City Symphony does not perform for this concert.)
Hear Ye
At churches all around the metro you can hear organ music as part of worship service, but there are also concerts, recitals, and collaborative performances to enjoy year round, including some annual festivities.
An active performer, Kraybill was nominated for a Grammy Award for her album, “The Orchestral Organ.” She frequently collaborates with area arts groups, including the Kansas City Symphony and will perform with them in the Netherlands and Germany on the organization’s first European tour.
Along with national appearances, she frequently performs on three different local organs: as conservator for the Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ, Opus 3875 in Helzberg Hall, organist-in-residence at Community of Christ in Independence, and organist at Village on Antioch Presbyterian Church in Overland Park.
Each year, she hosts a Super Bowl Sunday Organ Recital in the afternoon prior to the game at Community of Christ. Last year was the 25th annual tradition.
KCAGO hosts the French Organ Music Festival as well as Bachathon, an annual May event celebrating one of history’s greatest organists and composers, Johann Sebastian Bach. The festival is over four decades old, and this past year, performances included baroque chamber music, vocalists, and jazz trumpet, all with organ.
Speaking of jazz, hear the Hammond B-3 in heavy rotation most nights at the Green Lady Lounge, with performances from artists like Ken Lovern’s OJT (Organ Jazz Trio).
Classical KC often brings organ music to the airwaves, from local and international performers (for example, listen to Kraybill in this performance with the Liberty Community Chorus from the Classical KC Concert Hall.) And you can listen to the nationally syndicated show “Pipedreams” each Sunday on 91.9 Classical KC from 8-9 p.m.
