Historical organ to be removed, rebuilt and replaced by 2010

The Jacobs School of Music is completing negotiations that will lead to the construction of a new organ in Auer Hall.\nThe school has turned to C.B. Fisk, Inc., a world-renowned builder of organs with more than 40 years of experience, to construct the instrument that will bear nearly 4,000 pipes, according to a press release.\nChristopher Young, an organist and associate professor of music at the Jacobs School was thrilled with the announcement.\n“Their organs have grown and evolved from 40 years ago just like we hope people do when they graduate college and change based on what they have learned,” he said. “Their organs sound different than they did 40 years ago, and that’s a good thing.”\nThe proposed organ will be mechanical in nature, which Young said will allow for a greater variety of sound.\nIn electronic organs, which have grown in popularity over the past few decades, the pipe opens and closes at a set speed when the organist hits the key. However, with a mechanical organ, the player can control the rate at which the pipes open and close, Young said.\nThe organ currently in Auer Hall will be removed in August while Fisk works on the new one, set to be completed in the fall of 2010, said Alain Barker, director of marketing and publicity of the Jacobs School.\nIt will take two years to rebuild the organ and an additional year of voicing the pipes to complete the organ.\nStill, music students shouldn’t expect that much of a difference in their education over the next three years as Young said that, in its current state, the organ in Auer Hall is “deficient.”\n“We haven’t had a truly artistic and great organ in Bloomington for as long as I’ve been here, and that’s been almost 16 years,” he said. “For organists this will be a complete night and day difference.”