♪ ♪ Scott: Lakeland PBS's production of Sacred Breath First Lutheran church of Bemidji's pipe organ project is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people of Minnesota.

♪ ♪ Jon: First Lutheran needed to get a new pipe organ because the instrument had been installed way back in 1941.

And it was beginning to fail.

Jim: I wasn't and I don't think anybody was particularly married to that old organ, it just did the job.

It played before the hymns and this sort of thing.

And you could put on concerts and so forth but it wasn't going to do anything special.

And so, when we stepped up the question was what can we do?

And how do we do that?

Jon: My name is Jon Romer and it has been my joy to be a part of the revitalization project and to help find the appropriate pipe organ for First Lutheran church.

Jim: I'm Jim Bensen, member of First Lutheran church.

And many, many years ago in 1955 my high school sweet heart and I came to Bemidji State and this was our congregation.

Went out and made a big journey in life and had a chance to come back as the President of Bemidji State.

And we walked right over to First Lutheran and said, "We're back."

Beverly: Well, I'm Beverly Everett and I'm the music director of the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra and also the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra over in North Dakota.

But I have a kind of special connection to the pipe organ project in that I'm an organist.

Corey: Pastor Corey Fuhrman, Senior Pastor here at First Lutheran in Bemidji.

And we came to town in 2012.

And at that point the project was strictly an organ project and I'd heard a little bit about it during the interview process and shortly after I arrived.

But they were still kind of in the early, early stages.

Sarah: My name is Sarah Carlson and I am the director of music at First Lutheran church and the churches organist.

Jon: Early on in our project, because we had previous relationship with Charles Hendrickson of the Hendrickson Organ Company Charles graciously came here and shared ideas with us about some of the possibilities.

So that's where we began our shopping expedition.

Jim: It gave us a little bit of a perspective of how you start working with an organ builder.

We had some sessions on that that actually in one of those sessions I was asked to give a perspective on behalf of the visioning part of the community.

Pastor Yarger who couldn't be there for that meeting called me and said, would you share these ideas from me on this thing?

(It's hard work because we need to be sensitive and understanding to those who may be non-supporters for a project like this.)

I put that all together the grandeur, the possibilities that you know, are going to be pulling in the other direction.

Remember we also need a roof, we need (laughs) there's more to it than the organ proper.

Sarah: In the beginning I was thinking money would be the greatest hurdle.

Because we're talking about a brand new organ and many churches cannot afford a brand new organ.

So, the biggest hurdle was how are we going to get the money for this project?

Beverly: Sarah contacted me also Jon Romer contacted me several years ago and we had a conversation at the Wild Hare about their dreams and some of their aspirations for what they wanted to get and of course I just always jump on that.

I think, to have an instrument in town even just one, is a great resource for recitals.

It's a resource for doing collaborative projects with the orchestra as well as having a wonderful church service instrument that you can lead that worship through that instrument.

Jim: We were becoming 75 years old as a sanctuary.

And the organ was playing out, big time!

(laughs) And ah, I think to most people in the congregation they didn't even realize that here is the 75 year old organ there were 2 lofts for the organ pipes to be in and we were only in one of them.

We never really finished the original 75 year old organ project.

And it was time to do something different.

Pastor Corey: So the organ that we had and the entire sanctuary back when it was built in 1929 is when they started the building of this structure First Lutheran church.

Then the depression hit and so for 10 years this congregation worshiped in the basement.

Until 1939 when they were able to build the structure which is above ground.

And so, they were looking to the future.

They were realistic in what they could accomplish during the depression.

But once the depression started to ease they knew that they wanted to have a place of worship that was a beautiful place to worship.

And so, they built.

The original structure did not have stained glass windows.

It had light bulbs hanging on a wire from the ceiling.

It didn't have a pipe organ.

Within a couple of years the initial pipe organ was put in and that first organ because organs were a different beast at a different time, it was what they call an assembly line organ, it had a life expectancy of about 75 years.

Jon: Some of the deficits of the 41 instrument it was a Moller instrument and there were wonderful Moller instruments all over the United States and in fact other places in the world as well.

And it represented a time when all of the pipes were usually placed within a room and covered by a screen that was the style in those days.

Charles: But for a few decades out of 1,400 years of church music history they were able to install along with other companies, organ pipes in chambers invisible.

But they were able to voice them up in a manner that the sound could get out.

There was enough sound up in there, you don't want to be up in there when it's playing.

But it got out and could fill the room adequately with the sound that's there.

I have a drawing showing how this is arranged right here.

This is the organ chamber that I just sort of pointed out to you with my little pointer.

And you can see there are pipes all over the place in here.

And here's the set of shutters that lets the sound into the chancel and here's the set of shutters that let's the sound out here into the nave.

Jon: At First Lutheran, 507 pipes I believe that we had, were in this room.

And it was closed off.

And in fact we found out as we went through the project that over 70% of the sound that was made in the pipe chamber was lost by the time it went to the first row.

So, we desperately needed to find a better design and we wanted to make a better use of the instruments.

Charles: We're proposing for the new pipe organ at First Lutheran church in Bemidji to use some decorative and symbolic motifs that would fill in the spaces in the pipe organ.

We have a lot of space between the tops of the pipes and the top of the case work that we have.

And we can fill that with symbols of our existence here which might be the conifer forest of the north.

Jon: Early on we began to realize that we wanted to include Native American flute pipes as a part of our new instrument.

And we did that to honor the tradition of beautiful music and art that Native American people have nurtured for thousands of generations in this part of the world.

Jim: When that conversation started and we have to really go back to Jon Romer again.

Jon: Ok... (flute music playing) ♪ (flute music playing) ♪ (flute music playing) ♪ (flute music playing) ♪ ♪ Jim: When he was at Gustavus Adolphus in the music department there and then retired up here and joined the church and he started getting involved with the Native community and the Native American flute.

And pretty soon he's got classes, he's got programs.

And you could just see there's something special here.

Anton: Well, my name's Anton Truer and I'm a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University I wear many hats and among them I also help coordinate the areas truth and reconciliation effort.

One of the threads we've been pursuing in the area around that has been an interfaith dialogue.

And there have been people from many different religious communities and faith traditions who've been coming together and talking about how can we make this area a better, more inclusive place?

And I think I was pulled into the efforts to build the Native inspired pipe organ because of that work.

There's a guy named Jon Romer who has a special passion for Native American flute music in particular.

And I think he deserves full credit for providing impetus for this particular project.

Jon: The idea of incorporating a Native American flute pipes on the new instrument actually came from page 3 of R. Carlos Nakai's book on the Art of the Native American flute.

I had a chance to work with R. Carlos when I taught music at Leech Lake tribal college and he was there, we spent a lot of time together.

At that time he talked about that some of the roots of the European pipe organ concept had their roots in the area of the Indigenous flutes in the world.

And so, obviously it started with one flute and then another flute was added and pretty soon you have a whole octave.

So I would say that the essence of the concept really originated with R. Carlos Nakai, the greatest Native American flute player in the world.

Anton: Jon Romer, he knows that there's a danger in having non-Native people appropriate Native culture or something like that.

He's a respectful guy.

And so I think he wanted to pull me into the discussion to make sure that he was doing this in a way that would be welcomed and respectful and provide inclusion and things like that.

So I entered the conversation with Jon Romer, Jim Bensen and others and it progressed from there.

Jim: The whole feeling is the beauty of the Native flute and is this possible?

Not saying that this needs to be done for the Native Americans, it's being done for everyone.

It's a partnership in dealing with this environment.

Beverly: When Sarah and Jon first told me about that I just thought it was such a creative piece of it.

It's not something that I can say that I would have thought of.

And part of that is the...my experience as a conductor in working with Keith Bear who is an incredible Native American flutist.

We've actually had him here in Bemidji with our symphony.

And knowing the tuning issues with the Native American flute it was a little hard to me in my traditional classical training to wrap my mind around how that would be folded into a traditional pipe organ.

Jim: My strength in bringing to the congregation was the strategy of planning from the future not to it.

So, when you plan from the future you are bringing things to you that are on your side, so the future becomes your friend.

If you don't plan from the future you plan to it or for it, and you're reacting to it, and then you get the negative responses.

We can't do it, it costs too much.

Beverly: There are always doubts in the congregation of why spend all this money on a pipe organ?

And especially with the trends in our church music practices now.

Many churches are going to a more contemporary type service where drums and guitars are more at the forefront.

And so there are lots of different arguments to be made.

I think another kind of unfortunate trend in some places has been the young people aren't being as interested in the pipe organ so we don't have new organists coming out.

And sometimes, quite frankly, you might not have an organist that has the skills to know how to play an organ to show all of it's creative abilities.

So all of those things lend themselves to kind of unfortunate arguments being made of, why spend all these thousands of dollars on an instrument?

And I just admire First Lutheran because again the tradition of hymnity having an incredibly talented and creative organist such as Sarah having a congregation that saw it as an important piece of worship.

It's not something that's just in a corner that just kind of is brought out sometimes but it is an integral part of the worship experience of the people in that church.

Scott: First Lutheran's pipe organ committees journey was just beginning.

They had much to research and experience.

Sarah: I think some of the questions that I had in my mind were how big of an organ do we want?

How big of an organ do we need?

How much sound should we have in our space?

What stops can we do without?

So there were a lot of questions.

Jon: Our committee realized early on we wanted to visit some instruments and probably the closest fine instrument in a church similar to our size and an instrument similar to the one we anticipated, exists at Park Rapids.

At Saint Johns Lutheran.

I learned this from the Native American community in my teaching as well.

That rather than verbally try to sell an idea, go and visit and experience the finished product.

And then ask yourself what do we need to do to acquire that and do we want that?

Jim: Then the organ committee started looking at organs.

It took two or three car loads of people.

Went to these churches and spent a chunk of a day there.

With Sarah of course.

(laughs) And she'd play the organ, they'd sing hymns and they would talk about this and that.

Sarah: So the members of the Park Rapids organ committee were there in attendance when we went to visit that day.

And they were so gracious and answered our questions about what it took to get the congregation on board and how to fund raise different things that they did that they were advising us to do.

Jon: The instrument at Park Rapids inspired us because we heard all of the individual voices that came out of the instrument.

(background voices) (background voices) (pipe organ starts playing) (pipe organ playing) ♪ (pipe organ playing) ♪ (pipe organ playing) ♪ (pipe organ playing) ♪ (pipe organ playing) ♪ (pipe organ playing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing joins in) ♪ ♪ Jon: And certainly within a worship service as well as in a concert situation we don't want just one big sound, but we want to be able to not only vary the amount of sound but enjoy the different sounds.

Just like everybody has their own voice and creates a unique individual so we wanted to be able to do that.

That I think was the most important thing about Park Rapids.

Sarah: Going to Park Rapids was a pivotal time for the organ committee from First Lutheran because it opened everyone's eyes to what could be done in our own sanctuary.

The folks in Park Rapids were so gracious and they answered all of our questions about what it is like to place a new organ in a sanctuary and that's never been done before since the original instrument has been there.

(pipe organ playing with singing) ♪ ♪ Carolyn: Members of First Lutheran church in Bemidji came here tonight to talk to us about fundraising and the process that we went through when we built our pipe organ.

They wanted to know about fund raising they wanted to hear our organ.

They just wanted to know what the process was.

And so we did our best to help them.

And I think we answered some questions for them.

They seemed to be pleased with it, they seemed to be excited.

I think that we inspired them.

Sarah: When we went to Park Rapids we were still unsure of what we wanted.

So our ears were open, we were wondering what we could do.

But we were listening to their new organ and we enjoyed it so much, it was a strong organ but at that point we were still exploring builders.

(pipe organ playing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing, singing) ♪ (pipe organ playing) (singing ends) (background talking) (clapping and background voices) (clapping and background voices) (background voices) (background voices) (background voices) Jim: It wasn't sitting in a room around the table saying, what about this, what about that?

No, they went to and experienced it was a process of decision making.

And it would step up and step up and what if, compare this to that.

And so, if there was anybody well versed in excellence in organs, this committee was it.

They did the job on that.

(background voices) (background voices) Jon: We also then were invited to visit a fine instrument in Grand Rapids.

That instrument too, is a beautiful instrument.

Sarah: Grand Rapids we enjoyed that trip immensely because it was a Hendrickson organ.

Jan: Originally when our sanctuary was built I think the idea was to put pipes in behind those rooms there so to effectively kind of quelch any good sound.

Charles Hendrickson came up and Andreas too, and said, no you'd want your organ back there.

And we had to work within some limitations.

Our pastor said we can't cover up that window.

Jan: My name is Jan Bilden I'm the organist at Saint Andrews Lutheran in Grand Rapids Minnesota.

And I have been the organist since about 1993.

This evening we had a group from First Lutheran in Bemidji who are considering buying a pipe organ or purchasing one to be built for their congregation and they wanted to see what our organ was like.

Our organ was built by the Hendrickson Organ company of Saint Peter.

And so I was able to show them the organ and they could hear it.

And we talked organs for awhile.

(organ playing in back) Well, when we got this new organ it was an exciting moment because all of a sudden I needed to go back and play some of those wonderful pieces I've learned in the past and I was also challenged to learn more things.

And I know our hymn singing has changed greatly.

Much more variety and ways to do it effectively.

Usually an organ committee is composed of a cross section of a congregation.

There are people there who are interested in the music itself.

Some are vocalist some are watching out for the well being of the family, of the finances, of the building.

And so it's very much an educational process to be on an organ committee.

I hope they got a....kind of a good feeling for what a good organ can do and be for your congregation.

And carrying away some enthusiasm about this task that they've been entrusted with.

Jon: Fortunately at First Lutheran our director of music, Sarah Carlson, is someone who can given 45 minutes can play anything that's been written for the pipe organ.

(playing) Sarah: I just remember feeling empowered with this instrument that could produce all of the different sounds that I could do on other organs.

It seemed like a concert instrument.

And that's what we were kind of striving for at that time was a concert instrument that we could use and have other organists come in and share in the beauty of the sounds.

(organ playing) (loud organ music) ♪ (loud organ music) ♪ (softer organ music) ♪ (softer organ music) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ (organ music playing, singing) ♪ Sarah: It had such a powerful beautiful sound and we were introduced to different stops by the Hendrickson Organ building company.

Eric was there to show us the instrument and the power.

(loud music playing, background voices) (loud organ music) ♪ (loud organ music) ♪ (loud organ music) (loud organ music) ♪ (loud organ music) ♪ (loud organ music) ♪ (loud organ music, singing) ♪ (loud organ music, singing) ♪ (loud organ music, singing) ♪ (loud organ music, singing) ♪ (loud organ music, singing) ♪ (loud organ music, singing) ♪ (clapping and laughing) (clapping and background voices) (organ music) (organ music) (organ music) (organ music) Sarah: The posaune.

(laughs) Well, when we were in Grand Rapids Eric Hendrickson was there to demonstrate the midi capability.

And so when I was playing a hymn he said, "This is what we could do."

And then he was able to transpose the hymn up a half step and then another half step and so everyone was just in an awe moment about wow, we could do that too.

(background voices) (background voices, organ music) (organ music, going up and down scale) (organ music) Eric: So that's....and that's the transposing demonstration there.

My name is Eric Hendrickson I am a pipe organ builder.

My father started building pipe organs oh, back in the '60s and now my brother and I are continuing in the shop.

Well, I grew up in the shop pretty much.

And so when I was taken aside by the fellows in the shop they'd show me new tricks on wood working techniques and pipe voicing techniques.

But my father did also hand down a lot of information that I picked up over the years.

And I guess I've been doing it for oh ah, 30 years now.

And when I say voicing I mean...I wish I could grab one...oh I have a pipe right here.

And ah, when we voice pipes we can make this mouth area where the wind is blowing across this just like blowing across a Coke bottle.

And you can make the mouth wider and taller with more area.

You can make the wind way have less air or more air.

Simply by pulling this little air slot open or closed and these ears on the outside can be adjusted to help the speech and the way the pipes brings about its speech.

There's a lot of parts to just one note that you hear.

First of all you hear how the notes start.

A note can start by going 'Ta', a note can start by going 'Phwa', a note can start by going 'Mwa' and those different aspects are heard in different pipes.

And some of those are desirable and some of those are not desirable.

But they're all used in some way to keep a consistency throughout the pipes and the way the pipes start their sound.

Once the pipes start their sound, they continue on the 'phawwww' and then you have your tone that you hear.

And that tone can be adjusted by making the pipes longer or skinnier or shorter or changing the style of the mouth that it's blowing across and all those little perimeters add up to different sounds that the organ can make.

(background voices) Jon: Science and art comes together.

(Amazing.)

Jon: Grand Rapids was especially interesting for us as well because the wonderful instrument that the people have in Grand Rapids has digital components midi capability.

(And so here's the memory cards for....) Jon: So that one can record a hymn so that if for example the organist could not be there for a rehearsal a choir or other people could come in and hear the instrument.

The organist at Grand Rapids could well have showed us all of the sounds on the pipe organ recorded it and we could've come in and she could just have pushed a button so she could relate to us verbally and so on and the instrument would have recorded all of the music.

Sarah: And also the capabilities of the fiber optic cable that we didn't have in our current organ.

(Eric: And that changes it in to a digital signal... and the only thing going up to the pipes is a little fiber optic cable.

That little fiber optic is in here and then this is big just so you don't crush it.)

(background voices) Ted: Like I said, I'm not an organ expert, I don't really understand all the stops and all the tambors that we can get through out.

But to experience an organ like this first hand is quite a treat.

And I guess I came for that treat and to kind of understand what it is to see a fine instrument like this.

(organ music) Sarah: So while we were shopping around for organs and we visited Park Rapids and Grand Rapids and then Minneapolis I was able to play all the instruments and work the different stops and the registrations so it was great to try on the instrument per se or see which one was the best to play for me.

Pastor Corey: The team, they divvied up the list and they called and asked for recommendations.

Asked for projects.

And then the larger team we came together and we had conversation about what each person had kind of find out.

Jon: We began the search.

We started with 22 different builders and we narrowed it to 11.

And then 6.

And then finally 3.

There was some other interaction with various companies as we went along.

But the most important thing then was to contact the most recent organ installations at various churches and we talked with the staff and we talked with the parishioners.

And we asked each church that had received an instrument from these 3 builders how they felt about the instrument.

How they felt about working with the builder.

Because once the instrument is there, it needs to be maintained.

♪ ♪ Scott: First Lutheran's church pipe organ committee continued to research and travel to experience pipe organs from different builders.

♪ ♪ Meanwhile, life and worship continued as usual at First Lutheran church of Bemidji.

Sarah Carlson was invited to play a program of several pipe organ pieces at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.

♪ Sarah: This is the organ.

I have it all set to go for the first piece.

You have special shoes that glide across the pedals.

These are organ master shoes.

My second pair that I've ever had, but they last a long time.

And... you're just, you're able to play really fast with these shoes.

Well this is a Moller Pipe Organ.

I know it quite well so I can prepare for all my pieces.

So when I go over there to the Notre Dame there's going to be twice as many keyboards to figure out and I'm excited.

(laughing) My son is here too.

David: I'm David Carlson.

I'm going to Paris with her because it's going to be awesome.

Sarah: I'm playing my whole Notre Dame program.

I'm playing 8 pieces.

So I start with a grand one and I end with a grand one.

Well, this is great that I'm able to give this performance to the crowd here because that way I'll be super ready when I go over there next week.

(background voices) (organ music) (organ music) Sarah: I'm ready to roll.

(background voice) (clapping) (clapping) (clapping) ♪ (organ music) Sarah: Well, there was some really nice things about the old organ.

The flute stops in particular, the 2 foot and the 8 foot were very nice.

The 16 foot and the pedal was very nice as well, warm sounding.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Pastor Corey: So the one thing that I was excited about was to broaden the project beyond the organ.

Jim: And we felt that if we did a new organ that we would need to do a remodeling inside the sanctuary to improve the acoustics.

Improve the physical arrangement so we could have larger groups come to the front of the church.

There was too many steps and things in the way all the time.

(laughing) So that was all put into one big project.

Pastor Corey: That's when I kind of entered the conversations.

When we started looking at the sanctuary.

And making this project not just a project about an organ, but a project about a revitalization of the entire sanctuary.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Jon: In any large room there's always a delay of sound, an echo or reverberation.

Kind of that cathedral sound.

But usually unless someone really oversees that the sound delay, the echo, the reverberation of the sound, some of the partials either at the top or at the bottom drop out if it's not acoustically prepared right.

In most large rooms it's the bottom of the sound that drops out.

With a pipe organ the largest pipes, the lowest pitches are the most expensive.

So you don't want to lose that sound.

Sarah: So when I used to play the old instrument, the Moller whenever I would release the notes on the organ, the sound would just collapse.

And there would be no resonation of the sound.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Pastor Corey: The acoustics were something that I deeply desired in this project to be a major focus.

Partly because if you ever sang at First Lutheran on a Sunday morning under the acoustics that were there ...Pastor Linnea and I couldn't hear the congregation singing.

They couldn't hear themselves singing.

And so by making the acoustics better people are able to sit alongside each other and they're not afraid to sing because the only voice they're hearing is not their own.

They're hearing the rest of the congregation sing too.

And so it inspires the group to sing louder.

Jon: I think of ♪ Beethoven, I think of Handel, I think of Bach.

♪ Those composers gave their ♪ best effort to the sacred music ♪ that they composed.

Because they felt ♪ that it was important to be able to offer that ♪ in praise to the Creator.

That's what our church ♪ is about.

So the first priority ♪ for our instrument is to ♪ support and lead spiritual songs ♪ and the liturgy and hymns.

♪ And it's second priority, but equally ♪ important perhaps for the community is to be ♪ a fine concert instrument that would stand side ♪ by side with the excellent musicians that we have ♪ in the symphony.

The wonderful choir that we have ♪ at Bemidji University.

The fine ♪ instrumental program, the brass program and ♪ all those musicians.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Pastor Corey: I had noticed we had about 8 feet of functional ♪ space.

Because of the steps that were up front ♪ we had the handicapped ramp and some iron rails.

We ♪ couldn't have very much programming space.

You couldn't have ♪ a large choir come in.

We couldn't ♪ do that which I think God was ♪ asking us to be able to do in that space.

♪ One of the things that ♪ was very important to me was ♪ that one, the sanctuary of revitalization was a revitalization ♪ of what we already had.

It wasn't to make it ♪ contemporary.

It wasn't to make it ♪ starkly new and different.

Because people had loved this ♪ space for 75 years.

And ♪ how do we fix the problems ♪ in the space without radically changing ♪ the look of the space in a way that some people ♪ could see as negative.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (clapping) (clapping) (clapping) (clapping) Jon: So when you think about it from the planning, the materials that are used, the acoustical aspect, and then having a room which completes the instrument, that resonates the sound of the pipes, all of that has to come together.

Pastor Corey: We had a couple of forums in the congregation to find out what the congregation saw as something that would bless the space because we did not want to distract from the space.

And so we asked the simple questions.

What are the needs of this space?

Jon: And fortunately we had Scott Riedel from Wisconsin who was here to help us with the acoustical environment.

Scott: I'm Scott Riedel.

I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin I'm the president of Scott R. Riedel & Associates.

We are acoustic consultants and design engineers.

And we provide organ consultation for churches.

Which is really the process of designing and helping the church select an instrument for their worship.

♪ Oh, yeah.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Scott: Is it the pentatonic scale pretty much or...?

Jon: Yes.

Scott: Well, first we have to figure out what is the acoustic need of the space.

And being First Lutheran Church their acoustic requirements and needs are going to be clarity of speech delivery to all the worshipers.

This will be the sermon, the lessons, the prayers.

They need good music in their church because the choir's going to sing anthems, instrumentalists will play pieces.

The organ will play so the congregation has musical accompaniment to their service.

The third big thing is that the congregation members themselves participate in the service, primarily in singing hymns and singing and speaking parts of the liturgy.

So the acoustic environment that we are charged with tending to has to support those activities, speech, music and the congregations song and speech together.

So there's the goal.

Scientifically we have to come up with things like setting a reverberation time which is the amount of time sound energy can linger and be audible in the space to blend music.

We want that reverberation time a little bit long to help enhance music.

We want the reverberation time not too long that it might cloud speech.

So we have to be careful with reverberation time.

And that's effected largely by the materials in the room.

Are the materials in the space sound absorbed, have a reflective and to what amount and what ratio?

So we have a various scientific measures and architectural and system designed features in a room to get the sound right for the congregation.

The goal being again, speech, music and the congregation singing and speaking together.

Well this is an existing building of a good number of years.

I'm not sure exactly how old it is... 70 years and upward, at least.

So we have an existing building and we have to work within this envelope.

So the challenge is the acoustics aren't good right now for a number of reasons.

But we have a certain envelope and a limit to the space we can deal with.

Which is the size and shape of this room.

But we do have things that we can manipulate and change.

For instance the interior materials.

Right now this room has carpet has everywhere.

Which means the entire floor surface is entirely and completely sound absorptive.

Which works against some of these sounds we talked about.

It diminishes music.

It inhibits the ability of the congregation to sing together.

Because they're sitting on a giant sound sponge the carpet.

So our design challenge would be to figure out where and how much carpet ought to be changed for a hard surface floor that lets sound be more reverberant in the room.

Similarly we have a sound absorptive ceiling.

It's an old style acoustic panel system that's been glued or somehow affixed to the ceiling.

It makes the entire ceiling surface absorptive of sound.

And it doesn't again let sound reverberate and reflect and reinforce the song and speech of the service.

So the challenge is scientifically to figure out just how much less sound absorbing materials we need to have in here and exactly where the absorbing materials need to be changed to reflective so it supports sound energy.

Because as you point out it involves the arts.

And it's the musical arts and its also the sacred arts.

We do have the science and the science is what helps us figure out how the room will function best for its worshipers.

And then we get to that third topic which is the sacred.

And why that's why this room is here.

So you have indeed put your finger on the pulse of what's happening here... science, art and sacred.

Well an organ pipe is made the same way... really, that's essentially what it is yeah.

Jim: By the time they got through a series of those meetings, I think they knew what would be the appropriate level for us to step into on our project.

Jon: Being independent northern Lutherans we wanted to decide for ourselves so our committee, Sarah, of course and Pastor Corey being a part of that.

When we had finally narrowed it then down to 3, we decided you know, we need to make one other sweep.

We had learned so much about pipe organs.

Sarah: So I'm so glad that we were able to hear different organs when we had our organ trip to Minneapolis.

Jon: And in that one trip we wanted to make immediate comparison.

And not have 2 or 3 days or a week or two between comparing instruments.

We wanted to hear them one right after the other.

And it was an easy decision.

Pastor Corey: So then we chose Casavant Fre'res out of Quebec, Canada.

The bonus to us was the strength of the dollar at the time of the project, because it's about an $850,000 organ that we were able to attain at about a $556,000 price tag because the dollar was 30 cents higher than the Canadian dollar.

Sarah: At the time our dollar went far in Canadian dollars.

So we could get a lot more new pipe organ at the time if we chose Casavant.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Jon: Casavant Fre'res is one of the finest organ companies in the world.

Their instruments are all over the place.

All over Canada, Montreal.

I understand in China.

I think Jacques said they're working on a new instrument in Copenhagen.

Another one in Georgia.

Sarah: And some of the builders we had looked at had a window of 5 years out, 3 years out and in our time frame we kind of wanted a new pipe organ sooner than 5 to 7 years out.

Jon: The Casavant organ was always more dramatic.

It was always more unified and the beautiful sound that we heard from that instrument was one that we felt could best serve the Bemidji community and First Lutheran.

Beverly: And the organ that Sarah and I performed on as a concert instrument at the University of Iowa was a Casavant and then I was organist at a Methodist church in Muscatine, Iowa that had quite a large Casavant pipe organ.

And so I'm very familiar with that organ maker and I'm so delighted for them and for all of us that they went with Casavant because it's such a beautiful company that creates beautiful instruments.

And instruments that have that rich color.

♪ (loud organ music) Jon: As we approached the final Easter service where the Moller was going to be played it had a beautiful, warm sound.

A very gentle sound.

And in fact, there are folks in the community, Wayne Hoff among them, who referred to the Moller sound as the legendary sound in Bemidji.

Because that organ had been broadcast on the radio going back years and years in fact Wayne's comments helped me realize at that time that on the new instrument that we could include some of those pipes on the up side to certainly maintain that legendary sound.

(Let us pray: Oh Lord we give you thanks for the gift of music which has given life to our worship throughout the generations.

As this chapter of our worship life closes we anticipate on this Easter morn the next chapter to be written.

In the name of God, the Father, son and holy spirit we hear it's final notes this day.

Amen.)

(Now all the vaults of heaven resound, 367.)

♪ Jon: The idea of being able to keep some of the old into the new was really exciting too.

The council is the same, completely refurbished and movable now.

And I think that also helped.

in lessening that sense of loss with the old organ.

And Easter's a great time to do it.

Sarah: It's so great that Casavant worked with us and we could ship those old pipes back and they could repurpose them, put them in our new organ.

So then we've saved some of the old, historical part of the Moller that people were used to hearing for so many years.

Jon: And also organ pipes cost a great deal of money.

And I began to think organ pipes don't deteriorate.

The wire and air supply many times deteriorate.

But the pipes remain good for hundreds and hundreds of years like some of the instruments that were actually constructed from the time of Bach and Handle that are still being played in Europe.

So we were able to include those pipes into the new instrument.

(singing in the background) Sarah: On the original instrument the ivory keys definitely had their signs of wear because they were chipped at the edges and we definitely needed a new keyboard no matter what.

So, the interesting thing about it we couldn't really get rid of the ivory keys or have them reused again because we couldn't ship the ivory keys up to Montreal because federal regulations and just we could not transport ivory in and out of the country.

We have them in our church right now and we can keep them for posterity.

So the new keyboard we have is not made of ivory and it's made of a nice solid material that will last for hundreds of years.

Scott: No elephants were harmed in the making?

Sarah: No elephants were harmed.

(laughing in background) Scott: Thank you.

Sarah: But the good thing is we were able to save some of the pipes.

Jon: Organ pipes cost quite a bit and we were able then to save about 75,000 dollars by incorporating those fine old pipes in the new instrument.

Beverly: And I think leaving some of the old pipes and figuring out what you can use, it retains that sense of history.

It pays honor to the fact that that old organ was also used in a lot of worship and a lot of weddings and alot of funerals and a lot of special occasions that were meaningful to people.

And we don't want to discount that.

We don't want to make it seem like anything that happened prior to this new Casavant should be somehow tossed aside.

Those things are important too.

And that importance is reflected in still knowing that some of those old pipes are there.

(singing and organ playing) ♪ (singing and organ playing) ♪ (band playing) ♪ ♪ (Hallelujah Christ has risen!)

(Christ has risen indeed, hallelujah) (You are the body of Christ raised up for the world.

Go in peace, share the good news.)

(....God) (You are invited to be seated) (music starts) ♪ ♪ Jon: When we think about the last service that the Moller was played at that wonderful Easter service, the very last piece that was played then was the Widor Toccata.

Sarah: The Widor Toccata was also played at the dedication of the Moller in 1941.

So this piece has cycled through many years.

Jon: Way back in 1941 at the dedication when the Moller was new, the Widor Toccata was the first song played then.

(organ music playing) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Sarah: Well, it was moving because to perform the very last time on the old organ is to say, goodbye to that chapter of history of First Lutheran.

But also opening a new chapter in the future of First Lutheran.

Beverly: If music has been a part of those special occasions the tunes and the melodies of that music and maybe the words of that music that's what's probably gonna stay in someones heart and in their mind rather than the actual sound of the organ so, I don't think it takes anything away from that.

And then the people that have things going toward in the future with the new instrument they're going to have their own memories too and their own special sounds that might just have a little bit more opportunity.

For instance if that set of Native American flute pipes for instance had some special meaning to their family.

So I think it's just the opportunity for all just to keep building on those memories.

Pastor Corey: When we decommissioned the previous organ that was here I know for a lot of folks it carried with it some emotion.

I'm new to the community, I want to honor what was here before but personally my existence with the organ is, it had pieces that weren't working.

And so the desire for what could come outweighed the decommission personally for me.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping) (audience clapping fading to wind) (traffic and wind sounds) (fading wind) Sarah: Well it was interesting to see the emptiness of where the old organ was and then everything being emptied out.

Just one open space.

Pastor Corey: I know when they built the fellowship hall addition here there was some plans drawn up to redo the sanctuary at that time.

But funds limited their ability.

And then between 2000 and 2010 it came up again and at that point it just wasn't a good time in the congregation to do something like that.

And so the project had really been in the works for many years.

The sanctuary probably hadn't been really worked on since the early 1980's late 1970's.

And so it was due for some new life.

Sarah: So the old space had a lot of different issues.

The number one issue was the sound, it was just a dead space.

The sound would just collapse after it was played or a song.

And also the front part of the church was very cluttered with different things making it hard to host choirs and host different groups because we didn't really have a nice flat space for people to come.

Jim: But the interior really took a fairly stark approach to what do we do to make this organ play better?

What do we do to increase the capacities of the sanctuary area itself?

I think it kinda surprised a lot of people when you walked in how far down that floor slanted to get to the front.

And when you stopped and looked at the windows and you said, yes I see it now.

Of course everything went out of there, it got cleared out.

Jon: By removing the carpet, by removing the effective acoustical tile on the ceiling and so on and making other changes to an uneven floor we needed to reconstruct part of the room staying true to the architectural integrity.

And the aesthetic beauty of what was all there and the tradition of the church itself.

But we needed to create a room that would amplify and resonate the 1,343 pipes.

(loud whirring) (loud whirring) (loud whirring) Pastor Corey: You know I was very excited to talk about how we keep true to who this space has always been.

Cause there's a lot of people that have been married here, lot of people who've been buried here and baptized here.

And we don't want a new space.

They made a choice consciously during the last building project around the millennial change, 2000, that they were going to stay rooted downtown.

They talked at length of selling this space and building something out a little ways.

And they had made the choice and no, we want to keep this space.

It is who we are.

What does that look like?

We need to live into that.

And we're still living into that, in our mission.

Sarah: Then part of the project was even a new roof.

So we have a brand new roof on the church.

Pastor Corey: The other piece that I'd heard from my very early days here is we needed to reroof.

And so, it seems like a funny tag on to the project but it was at that point 180,000 dollar expense that we knew that was gonna be coming.

Like someone wisely said, if you fix the space inside it's not gonna be very helpful when the roof leaks and your new space is....yeah...ruined.

Beverly: That's one of the things I admire about First Lutheran and this committee to be aggressive in that process.

Because to get a new pipe organ and to not consider architectural changes if they are needed really doesn't make any sense.

And so you have to take all of that in so that the organ can have the best home that it can and so that the entire picture of what they were doing was what it was supposed to be.

Jim: But then the other part was the acoustics and the operation of the organ within that space.

So they took away all of the things that were in the ceiling.

Removed them put the right surfaces back in there.

And put it all back together and gave us a chance as a congregation to redo our pews and smart them up a little bit so they look better.

Sarah: We also had a committee that totally renovated and refurbished our pews.

So our pews were in need of some resurfacing and restaining and so we had a dedicated group that spent hours redoing the pews.

Jim: They redid the floor and made it fairly level to the front so you can go right up to the alter now.

Whether you're handicapped or not.

Large groups of choirs and singers.

There's room for them up there now.

Jon: Then because we had to be out of the sanctuary for all of those months.

We were really eager to get back in.

Sarah: I think everyone's very proud of this new space.

The members of First Lutheran are proud to show relatives and new members our new space.

And I just see a lot of smiles in church.

(motor running) Jon: The day that the truck arrived with the new instrument was really an exciting one for me.

Fortunately in the past, I had been at a church and my students at the college where I taught helped carry in pipes and lay them on the pews.

(motor running) Sarah: The day that the pipes arrived on the semi-truck from Canada was so exciting.

We had many people waiting at the door to welcome the instrument and the people that were about to assemble the organ for us.

(motor running) (motor running) (clanging) Jon: And then ultimately I saw the experts from Casavant come in and take that 3 dimensional puzzle, impossible puzzle, and put it together.

(inaudible) Sarah: And so we literally were building from scratch and so when the new pipes and organ arrived we were able to document and watch day by day the process of the building of this new instrument.

Jon: As I walked into the church I found myself first thinking, "Oh these brave young men way up there on the ceiling."

And in fact I talked with them a couple of them out in the parking lot about that and they said well they do this often but they certainly pay attention to the height and it was a bit scary for them.

So I felt a little bit more at peace.

I couldn't wait to hear the instrument but I couldn't be...I guess, because of the kind of person that I am, I couldn't help but realize this was a chance of a lifetime.

Pastor Corey: When Casavant was here on sight they discovered our chambers were too small to house the amount of pipes we were talking about.

And so then they changed their plan.

And it took us a couple of months before we realized the significance of their change.

But originally we were thinking the pipes were sticking out of the wall a couple of feet.

The plans that we saw then a couple months later it was about 5 feet.

And so now we have to steel reinforce the area that's holding those pipes.

And that brought significant change to the project as well.

Though when that change from 2 feet to 5 feet came in it was a deep breath by everyone who heard about it because we didn't want to radically change the way the space looked.

And all of a sudden now we've got 10 feet of organ chamber, 5 on each side.

Are we going to crowd the reredos to the point where we're not going to be happy with the end product.

And so we did some measurements and we realized that no we're still going to have about a foot of wall around the reredos.

So it will be framed not by the organ crowding it in but by a wall still.

And it turned out beautifully.

Jon: Many people have come into the church and this was my concern early on.

That people would come into the church, look up into the sanctuary where the pipes are and feel that was an intrusion because they had seen just a lot of space before.

I've not heard one person say that the pipes were any kind of an intrusion.

And in fact they say, "Now our church is complete."

♪ ♪ ♪ Sarah: I was very excited to see the transformation but the most exciting day was to be able to come into the new space and to speak and talk and hear the grand acoustics that were developed in this process.

Jon: So fortunately as the result of the work the sound continues after the organ has stopped producing the sound.

But the full spectrum of frequencies continues and that's a real bonus.

That's why it sounds so wonderful in that room.

♪ ♪ ♪ Beverly: And Scott, one of the great things that the committee did and it's a testament to the technicians and creative team at Casavant is that they made the sound dimensions of this organ are perfectly suited for the size of the room.

And one of the challenges when a church gets a new pipe organ, is it's really easy to go a little bit too far to where... I mean I've talked a lot about how fun it is to play the organ really loudly.

But you don't want to do that to where you turn people off or you hurt their ears or you make them uncomfortable.

And one of the frustrations for me as an organist is if I go into a situation to play an organ and I put it on full organ or I want to play a loud sound and it's just dominating the room, where you just feel like you know, people are going to run out screaming and the ceilings going to cave in.

And that doesn't happen here.

You can play the organ at it's loudest and it's not overbearing.

And you can play it at its softest and people can still hear it.

Jon: But mainly it's like being inside of a cello when it's played.

So the organ makes the sound.

But it's prepared for this kind of acoustical environment.

Sarah: So now when I play the organ and I release the note, the sound resonates more clearly and lingers more in the space than before.

Jon: We wanted to make sure that when the instrument was in place that it would be of the quality that we anticipated.

And we certainly feel that with Casavant.

Not only the sound may be the most important but also the visual design.

Pastor Corey: And so Casavant not only a great organ builder, but a great wood worker and designer too.

And so the cabinets they brought, they took elements of what they saw in our reredos and the rest of the woodwork in the sanctuary and really tied it all together.

And so the project and the organ that we put in is equivalent to those that you see in Old Europe.

It has a life expectancy of 250 to 500 hundred years.

So now this congregation is looking that far out and saying, we're gonna be here in that many years.

And this organ is going to be playing for generations to come.

To celebrate with weddings and baptisms and funerals.

Sarah: This organ at First Lutheran Church includes a rank of 'bibigwan' stops and that's the Native American flute stop.

And it's never been done before and we're very blessed to have that in our church.

Jon: The Native American flute pipes in Ojibwe 'bibigwan' celebrate the thousands of generations of Native people who nourished beautiful music and art in this part of the world.

This is the flute pipes will sit in here and the flute pipes that'll be over in there will sit on here.

The one you think we're seeing it on the floor now in another day or two it'll be up there and it'll up there for the rest of our lives.

So it's kind of unique to see all of this in boxes.

What a incredible 3 dimensional puzzle to put together.

And with a 'bibigwan' stop when it's played when you play the....hold the note, and release the note there's a technique that you use with your foot, Jacques said, on the petal.

So that you get the "whoop", the flip on the end like out of the flute.

And Fabian was saying that it won't sound exactly like if a person was playing it.

But it will approximate that.

And he said you'll be pleased with it.

And I can't wait.

Again, the only one in the world.

I mean, here we are in Bemidji, MN with that.

So thank goodness that the flute was kept alive all those years and is still there.

That was the inspiration.

Jim: When Casavant came down, that question was brought up.

Would this be possible to do?

And their response was tell us what that is!

(laughing) Nobody's ever done that before.

So they gathered up a series of flutes and started demonstrating it and they listened and listened and listened and they said, you know we can do that, I think we can do that.

Jon: To identify the Native American flute element within the instrument replaced the colored leather bands on the pipes.

Anton: I had a conversation with Jim Bensen, Jon Romer and others about how to display the pipes and there is a concept in many Native cultures, including the Ojibwe, but also the Lakota and others that there are four directions.

The cardinal directions on the compass.

So east, south, west, north.

That there are four layers of sky and four layers of earth.

That there are four seasons... spring, summer, fall, winter.

And that in a person's life little babies are represented in the east with spring.

That young people are represented in the south with summer.

That adults are represented in the west with fall.

And that elders are represented in the north with winter.

And that when somebody's doing a prayer we often pray for people to see all of their seasons.

That's another way of saying to have a long, healthy life.

We acknowledge that there's beauty in each season.

Babies are beautiful.

Young people are beautiful.

Adults are beautiful.

Elders are beautiful.

It's a different concept than what often comes out in the western world where people try to pretend like they're going to stay twenty forever or something like that.

But that's a spiritual concept.

And although there is actually some regional variation about the colors that are associated with each of those directions, the colors that are represented on the flute there is one of the most commonly held associations with each of those directions.

So when you see the colors that are displayed on the flute, it is a symbolic representation of the four directions, the four seasons, the four parts of a persons life.

Sarah: It feels so unique and I love sharing the stop to visitors that come to the church.

Just this past week we had a group from Chicago and they loved hearing it.

So it's unique to display the sound to listeners that have never heard the sound before.

(speaking french) Sarah: So the 'bibigwan' pipes were voiced to an actual Native American flute that is in the possession of Jon Romer.

Jon: I spent a couple afternoons with Elaine and John-Sebastian just working on the Native American flute pipes.

In fact it was very important to them that they voiced the organ pipes to an actual Native American flute pipe.

♪ Sarah: Voicing the pipe organ is a unique craft of the organ builder that they can be sort of an artist and design the sound of each pipe so it blends together with the next pipe next to it.

In this case when I spoke with the builders from Casavant they specifically told me they are designing this organ and voicing it in the style of a symphony orchestra.

Beverly: Well the acoustics of the organ I think is perfect.

It has just enough reverberation.

The clarity of the stops as an organist... that's something I really listen for so that you can have great nuances and articulation.

Jon: The crowd on gala day was certainly high energy.

The anticipation of this fine new instrument.

And visually through the revitalization efforts it looked and it felt really fresh and new and celebratory.

For me the instrument made a wonderful sound because it looked beautiful.

People were smiling.

And with all the student energy the brass instruments I think a high point was to see how that this wonderful new instrument in this special room all worked together to support the human spirit.

And to support beautiful music.

It all worked together.

Sarah: Well, gala day was the day that we had invited everyone in the community to come into our church and to hear the concert.

And the concert not only included the new organ but also different choirs.

And we had the Bemidji State University Choir the Chamber Choir and also the First Lutheran Choir who sang at the event.

But it was a little bit nerve wracking for me to have only about 4 or 5 days to really be comfortable with the organ and perform it in front of everyone.

So that was a challenge in itself.

Beverly: And I'm so happy for Sarah.

She's a personal friend and so I'm so proud of her for having the initiative and having the strength to make this happen make it a reality.

It's one thing to talk about it.

It's a whole other thing to have a new instrument sitting in the room.

Pastor Corey: It's been really fun because Sarah Carlson has changed in who she is as a musician.

She plays so very differently now than she played on the old organ.

She has a command of the instrument.

Which is very different.

And it is a joy to hear all the different pieces that are now being used which weren't necessarily being put together before.

Sarah: Every time I slide on the new organ bench and I must say it's an adjustable organ bench which I didn't have before.

It's always so exciting because I get to use all the strong stops but also the gentle stops.

And I must say, my favorite stop on the new instrument is the 16 foot posaune in the pedal.

Sort of a reedy sound that everyone asked me afterwards, what was that I heard in the pedal?

Well the first time I was playing with the 'bibigwan' stop it was a little bit experimental because I was using the right pedal that is usually called the crescendo pedal.

I was using the right pedal to control the wind of the 'bibigwan' stops.

So I was told by the builders that would take a little time to get used to.

Beverly: And I just am impressed that Casavant was willing to figure out how to do that in this beautiful way.

And so it provides a whole opportunity for you know an old organist like myself to learn a new trick.

Anton: Honestly I think it's a welcome effort and addition.

And I think that the team at First Lutheran, Jon Romer and others were really careful about having a genuine conversation and not just saying we know better than Natives... what's best for them.

I also feel like there wasn't an ulterior motive.

So like Pastor Corey when we did the opening for the flute he said throughout history because our church is Evangelical in nature we've approached people from different religious backgrounds with the thought of how do we convert them?

So instead of telling Native people what you do and how you are needs to change, we are not holding conversion in this space but simply an effort to provide inclusion, understanding and cultural sharing.

And I needed to hear that and I thought that was the right message.

Pastor Corey: The Native American flutes, piece of it as I said on May 6th when we dedicated that piece of the instrument, there are many, many hurting people in our community.

People who have been hurt by the church.

But people who are just hurting because of situations.

And if this can be a bridge, an open door, that people of the community, when they're here for something else can see a piece of who they are in this space, I hope that that is a blessing for them.

Anton: I can only represent one Native voice.

And there will be other Native people who are very celebratory about this and others who don't feel trustful about the inclusion of Native things in what has historically been a non-Native religious space.

But you know having you know been part of this process I can say I feel there is sincerity and a good hearted effort around it.

(clapping) (clapping) Jon: Gala day, the dedication day was most exciting.

I'm one who likes the connection with the past or the bridge to the future.

And when the Moller was dedicated way back in 1941, the Charles-Marie Widor Toccata, was played on that concert.

On the last day at the Easter service when Sarah played the instrument the Widor Toccata was also played.

And now there was the bridge to the new instrument on that day, the Widor Toccata was played.

♪ ♪ Jim: The new organ is right at the top.

Just doing something that creates celebration in your heart.

And that's what we wanted to do and that's what we have.

Beverly: Well, an organ is kind of one of those once in a lifetime purchases.

So the pipe organ lasts for generations.

And so I think it was important that if they decided to upgrade that they got something that would have a forever home in that church.

And also I think it was a goal of the committee to have an instrument that would also help draw the community together for these different collaborative concerts.

♪ ♪ ♪ Jim: I think one of the natural things we see happening here is it's stretch and reach into Bemidji State University.

Not just the music department.

Right at this point we're looking to participate in the call for the Lutheran Campus Ministry.

And I look down the road, there's a lot of ways that both institutions can benefit immensely by working together.

Sarah: My hopes are we can draw in professional organists that would like to play our instrument.

We can get a regular rotating concert series every year.

But also to become a connection in the organ world and be a prominent place that people want to perform in the world as an organist.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Beverly: A small group of people decided to make a big change and were able to convince a larger group of people to support that.

Anytime any group makes that happen having to do with the arts, having to do with music it's really a win for us all.

It shows to me not just the importance of church music traditions in First Lutheran Church but it speaks to me of how important music and the arts art to this community of Bemidji, Minnesota.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Pastor Corey: The project was all about the future.

First Lutheran Church was founded when this community was young and growing.

And it is not something that is going to be relegated to the past.

It's an exciting time to be in the church because of this project but also because of the culture of the congregation.

The congregation is excited about who they are presently and excited about who they can be because we are a shadow of who we can be in bringing the mission of Jesus Christ to the world.

Jon: My hope for the revitalization project is that the instrument is a vehicle celebrating the human spirit in religious and other ways and that people will be drawn into the room that embraces that instrument.

And their spirit will be refreshed and they will be happy and it will inspire them to go on and lead very exciting and energetic happy lives.

♪ ♪ Scott: Sacred Breath was made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

♪ ♪ ♪