Assembly Hall to Receive New Organ

The Church will be given a musical 150th birthday present in 1980—a new $300,000 pipe organ in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.

The new organ, the building’s third, replaces a pipe organ installed in 1913. Construction and installation of the new instrument are being funded entirely by private contributions. Completion is scheduled for mid-1980, the 100th birthday of the building and the 150th birthday of the Church.

Plans are also underway for an ongoing series of Assembly Hall concerts throughout the sesquicentennial year, featuring prominent artists of the Church.

Tabernacle organists say the new organ will make performances possible that could not have been done on previous Assembly Hall organs. The new instrument will significantly broaden the range of music that can be performed successfully. It will be the first Assembly Hall organ on which all organ literature can be played.

The 65-rank, 49-stop mechanical-action organ will be encased and free-standing with a detached console. Its finish and design will harmonize with the current interior of the Assembly Hall. The Assembly Hall rostrum will be modified slightly to accommodate the organ and create a more flexible performing area.

A feature of the organ will be the addition of a “Rueckpositiv,” a division of pipes placed to the organist’s back to project more intimately into the hall. The feature is unique among organs of the Church.

The three-manual organ will be built by Robert Sipe of Dallas, Texas, a former employee of the Aeolian-Skinner Company, which built the present Tabernacle Organ in 1948.