We are proud to announce the release of the 1893 J.W. Steere organ in the First Baptist Church of Owatonna, Minnesota. It has a long and interesting history – the organ was installed with funds donated by the famous Pillsbury family, and has served the church for nearly 130 years.
The instrument is a typical small parish instrument of that era, with plenty of 8′ tone, lots of options for color, and built sturdily to work and last with minimal maintenance. Also notable is the fact that the organ is mostly original and intact – it does have an electric blower, but one can still see the controls for the original water machine and there is still a stop knob to signal the bellows, hearkening back to the days of manual pumping.
The organ is still used for weekly services, and is in remarkably good condition considering its age. We sampled in 96kHz/24 bit, and downsampled to 48/24 after noise reduction was complete.
This continues our series of historic American organs – we are grateful to church organist Drew Meyer and the church board for allowing us to digitally preserve the sound of this organ for the future. Do note a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the sample set will go back to the church.
To order a copy of this historic organ go HERE
Introductory price $89, and includes a complimentary free organ – a small instrument on the Concordia University Irvine campus. The instrument was a home organ which was donated to Concordia University and came to the university in 2019. It sits in the university’s new Zhang Concert Hall.
