Mercer Island Presbyterian Church
Carl Dodrill 10/29/12
The Foundation has been awarded two projects for expansion and improvement of the Foundation's Opus 2 at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church on Mercer Island, Washington.
The first of these is the completion of the 16' Open Wood rank of pipes. The bottom 12 notes of this Pedal rank was installed several years ago, but the top 20 notes of that rank were not available at that time. The Foundation has now been able to acquire the top 20 notes which will be added to the bottom 12. All pipes are Austin and were installed in the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Seattle, in 1911. "While the bottom 12 notes have been useful, having the entire rank in place will really add to the Pedal division of this instrument," said Carl Dodrill, President of the Foundation. This project is expected to be done by Christmas, 2012.
The second project awarded the Foundation at Mercer Island Presbyterian is the installation of a 16' Trombone in the same instrument. There is currently a rank of Trombone pipes in the instrument, but its usefulness has been limited because it does not blend well with the rest of the instrument. The speech of the pipes for especially the bottom two octaves has a "bite" to it rather than being full and smooth. Fortunately, the Foundation has been able to secure a rank of 1928 Wangerin Trombone with tapered wooden resonators, and the speech of these pipes are powerful but smooth. Therefore, the Wangerin pipes will be substituted in for the less useful rank and they will play at 16' and 8' on the Pedal and at 8' on the Great.