2018-03-12
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Saving the Organ


Background and Motivation

With the popularity of the pipe-organ having been in decline for at least 5 decades, the organ industry is in dire straits: the number of new instruments being purchased has declined; churches are not maintaining existing instruments properly; and fewer young people are taking an interest in learning to play the organ.

Coincidental with the decline of the organ, church attendance has declined dramatically. As music is believed to be an integral part of the success of a church, alternatives to the organ such as pianos and praise-bands have been explored but have failed to stop the decline in general.

Clearly, policies and practices that have been in place for decades for promoting and protecting the industry are not working adequately. There are countless opinions on the causes and the solutions but they generally conflict with one another. Fundamentally, there is no consensus, the decline continues and, to stop it, major change is required.

To survive, an industry must meet or exceed customer expectations. To succeed, the organ industry needs people's time and money (audiences, congregations). In the 21st century, competition for people's time and money is fierce. To attract, retain and grow audiences — to win the time and money &mdahs; music must thrill and inspire.

There are 3 fundamental components of the thrill of music:

  1. the quality of the sound (the instrument);
  2. the appeal of the music itself (the music);
  3. the quality of the performance (the musician).

For maximum thrill, all three fundamental components must be maximized.

Maximizing the three fundamental components requires focussed, co-ordinated effort from all roles within the industry.

To that end, this second regional mini-conference is being held to bring together as many people as possible from all facets of the organ world, including organists, organ builders, technicians, teachers, clergy, financial people and anyone else with an interest in the organ to begin work towards establishing a new industry-wide framework for the success of the organ in the 21st century.

Come and be a part of this exciting opportunity to take a fresh look at some of the problems we need to solve and some of the opportunities we may have or can seek out to restore the organ and music to its rightful position in 21st-century society: a sought-after source of inspiration.