101 years. Don't let the music die.
In the News
Audio and Video
GATEWAY
Opposition to removing Casavant Organ grows
SLIPPED DISC
Another mighty organ bites the dust
GATEWAY
CBC
U of A hits sour note with decision to remove venerable pipe organ from Convocation Hall
TORONTO STAR
‘The day the music dies’: Organists pipe up to save historical U of A instrument
GLOBAL NEWS
‘The day the music dies’: Organists pipe up to save historical U of A instrument
EDMONTON JOURNAL
EDMONTON JOURNAL - LETTER TO THE EDITOR
EDMONTON JOURNAL - LETTER TO THE EDITOR
U of A organ removal a travesty
EDMONTON JOURNAL - LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Organ a memorial to the fallen
EDMONTON JOURNAL - LETTER TO THE EDITOR
No need to remove U of A organ
RADIO CANADA
Un dernier concert pour l'orgue Casavant que l’Université de l’Alberta a décidé de retirer
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
Support from Anna Lapwood
Support from Anna Lapwood
Support from Anna Lapwood
Anna Lapwood, one of the world's most famous organists, is pleading with the University of Alberta to discuss instead of demolishing. Comment, like and share her video!
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Video on Tiktok
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The Last Concert?
Support from Anna Lapwood
Support from Anna Lapwood
The organ community and veterans in Edmonton came together to celebrate this magnificent instrument and remember the fallen soldiers. Musicians included Stephen Fong, Wendy Nieuwenhuis, Julia Davis-Hui, Marnie Giesbrecht, Tammy-Jo Mortensen, Joachim Segger, and Gary Tong. Thank you to the community readers who spoke the names of those who died in World War I and World War II.
Listen!
Edmonton organist Tammy-Jo Mortensen devoted her April 18 "Maple Infused Classic Breakfast" radio show on Big E Radio to exploring the Convocation Hall instrument and its history. Listen here
You can help!
WRITE AN EMAIL, SEND A LETTER
Use a different kind of keyboard. Write a letter, call, send an email. Contact information is below. Please cc Dr. Marnie Giesbrecht (mg4@ualberta.ca)
- Help keep organ music and memory alive at U of A!
- We are seeking a meeting with the project team to discuss options
snapshots and speaking out
Dr. Marnie Giesbrecht speaking at the Last Concert
1978 Casavant Organ, photo credit Tammy-Jo Mortensen
1978 Casavant Organ console, photo credit Tammy-Jo Mortensen
Performers at the Last Concert (Stephen Fong, Wendy Nieuwenhuis, Julia Davis-Hui, Marnie Giesbrecht, Tammy-Jo Mortensen, Joachim Segger, Gary Tong). Photo credit Wendy Nieuwenhuis
Detail of the memorial pipes preserved at the front of the hall
1978 Casavant organ pipes
Detail of the memorial pipes preserved at the front of the hall
1978 Casavant organ pipes
What is at stake
A major project to renovate and refresh Convocation Hall, secretly prepared, will desecrate the university's 1978 Memorial Casavant Organ by removing it permanently. In other words, the University of Alberta plans to obliterate a significant WWI War Memorial dedicated in 1925, rededicated in 1945 and again in 1978 along with 101 years of organ pipes breathing and sounding in Convocation Hall.
The solution to this problem is to prevail upon the President of the University of Alberta, Bill Flanagan, to pause closure of the hall on April 30th, less than one month after the news broke. We ask that he reverse the decision to permanently remove the Memorial Organ that graces Convocation Hall with beauty of architecture, sound and historic significance; to respect the generations of university students, faculty and officials who chose to remember the fallen with a monument which offers cultural value, solace, majesty, lament and joy through its 36 stops, 51 ranks and nearly 2500 pipes. We ask President Flanagan to consult, to compromise and to revise the revitalization plans with a decision to preserve the Memorial Organ.
It is heartbreaking for me to think that future generations of students, faculty, members of the Edmonton arts community, public and beyond will not be able to hear, to study, to research, to compose, to perform on or to perform with this Brunzema Casavant, a rare and significant tracker action organ in Canada, the first of its kind in the West. Opus 3358 helped make the University of Alberta a frontrunner in BMus, MMus and DMus organ performance programs. I was the first DMus graduate at the University of Alberta in 1988. On faculty from 1988 to 2014 I had the great honour and pleasure of teaching organ students in all three programs as well as second studies and music majors until 2014. How deeply satisfying it is to see how they have built their careers having had the the opportunities to learn on and about the 1978 Casavant. It is my dream and sincere hope that once budgets allow, an organist will be hired to serve the university again and the organ programs will be reinstated.
Marnie Giesbrecht
Professor Emerita
University of Alberta