AGO American Guild of Organists
Binghamton, New York Chapter
Welcome!
Mixtures, our chapter newsletter
Our chapter calendar
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Organs of the southern tier
A few handy links
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Christ Church Binghamton
Coming up!
Saturday, January 14
10:30AM
Ogden-Hillcrest
United Methodist Church
Music for the
Funeral Service

2012 National Convention
Nashville, Tennessee
AGO 2012 Nashville
Early Registration Deadline
February 14, 2012
Click here for more info
WELCOME TO THE BINGHAMTON CHAPTER WEBSITE

The Binghamton Chapter was founded in 1929 and supports the goals of its parent organization, the American Guild of Organists. As part of our history we hosted the 2001 Regional Convention and participated in the October 16, 2008 Organ Spectacular with our own well-attended members recital. Our small but active group of approximately 55 members plans a variety of events to serve a diversity of needs. Some of us are organists, some of us build organs, and others are simply happy listeners.  Most importantly, we enjoy getting together and supporting one another in our musical endeavors.

The welcome mat is extended to new members. If you are interested in joining our chapter, you may download a membership form or contact one of our co-deans or the registrar for further information.

Polly Wendling, dean


Happy Birthday!
Two turn 100

Two iconic examples of American organbuilding are celebrating their centennials this year.

On September 11 Craig Williams played a recital at the West Point Cadet Chapel. His program commemorated the centennial of the organ, the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11/2001, the bicentennial of Liszt's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the death of York Bowen, an English composer influenced by the works of Wagner and Liszt.

Surprisingly, there seems to be no website dedicated to this organ, said to be the world's largest church organ.

West Point Console
October 1 saw the celebration in fine style of the centennial of the Wanamaker organ in the now Macy's store in Philadelphia. Store organist Peter Richard Conte was joined by members of the Symphony in C, conducted by Rossen Milanov, in a program of pieces for Organ and Orchestra. The organ is now billed as the world's largest fully playable organ. A very active organization, Friends of the Wanamaker Organ lends its support to that of the Macy's chain. A review of the event in the Philadelphia Enquirer is available here.

 Wanamaker Console
West Point and Wanamaker/Macy's photos courtesy of Joe Routon

(Roll mouse over organ images to enlarge)

Go Green, Save Green

Like all of us as individuals, our executive board is struggling to stretch our limited resources. One quite significant expense has been the printing and cost of distribution of Mixtures, our chapter newsletter.

NewsletterMany have already expressed their willingness to receive Mixtures via Email as a PDF attachment. Although the newsletter is also available here on the website, we can't conveniently include hyperlinks for Email as these would almost certainly result in spam for you. The web version of the newsletter also deletes job postings, as these are a perquisite of membership.

This convenient link will open a preformatted Email in your mail client that you can send to let us know that you're willing to receive Mixtures in this manner.



Polly is continuing as this year's dean. She would very much like to find someone else to be the editor of Mixtures. Familiarity with Word or Publisher would be helpful, but we'd be very happy to help anyone willing to assume this task get started. Please Polly if you're interested or can think of someone you think might be willing to undertake this.




Wanamaker/Macy's Philadelphia


Broome County Arts Council Newsletter

It is very easy to get the BCAC Weekly Newsletter, which is literally packed with all that is happening in the local and area arts world. Individual members of Binghamton AGO Chapter can sign up to receive the newsletter of the BCAC by going to the Web Site http://www.bcartscouncil.com, clicking on Get Our Newsletter, and entering one’s email address.

Enjoy organ music in its infinite variety on PIPEDREAMS from American Public Media, broadcast each week on WSKG Binghamton 89.3 fm* on Sunday at 6:00am. Each week a new two-hour program also appears online, and hundreds of past broadcasts are continuously accessible in the PIPEDREAMS program archive at www.pipedreams.org
* see the WSKG website at http://wskg.org/radio.aspx for additional transmitter frequencies


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