The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is celebrating 25 years with the Lay Family Concert Organ.
It’s a massive pipe organ that was designed and built into the Meyerson Symphony Center. It has 4,535 pipes and only a fraction of them can be seen by the audience.
Photojournalist Peter Hull and organist Bradley Hunter Welch take us inside the Lay Family Concert Organ.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra Concert Information: Tickets can be purchased at mydso.com or by calling 214-TIX-4DSO.
We also took a look in the NBC 5 archives and found a special program produced by NBC 5 about the organ from 1992.
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Organ Fun Facts:
• 2017-2018 Dallas Symphony season celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Lay Family Concert Organ
• There are 4,535 pipes that make up the organ. Only a fraction of those can be seen by the audience.
• The instrument’s 4,535 pipes are dispersed over six divisions, which are played from four manuals and pedal.
• The Great, Positive, and Swell divisions and certain stops of the Pedal division form the classical core of the organ.
• The organ draws its tonal inspiration from many different styles and periods of organ building, enabling it to effectively showcase both organ solo and symphonic literature.
• The Resonance, played on either manual or pedal keyboards, is a powerful division of French romantic influence.
• An English-inspired Tuba division, voiced on 20" wind pressure, is especially suited for climaxes in music for organ and orchestra.
• The lowest note is performed by a pipe that’s 32’ long. You can’t really hear it as much as feel it.
• There are 32 notes/pedals you can play with your feet.
• It took three years to build. (1989-1992.) The inaugural performance took place on September 2, 1992.
• The first piece ever played on it: Organist Michael Murray and the Dallas Symphony under Maestro Eduardo Mata inaugurated Opus 100 on 2 September 1992. The program included Richard Strauss’s Festival Prelude for Orchestra and Organ, Poulenc’s Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra, and Timpani, and Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3, ‘Organ Symphony.’
For more information about the Dallas Symphony Orchestra:
• fb.com/dallassymphony
• @dallassymphony
• Tickets available at mydso.com
