Old St. Mary Church in downtown Milwaukee will install a new pipe organ in 2027, built by Greenleaf Organ Company and incorporating historic pipework. (Courtesy rendering)
Two Milwaukee churches plan new instruments for 2027 as others preserve historic organs through restoration and concerts.
Two historic Milwaukee Catholic churches are preparing to welcome significant new pipe organs in 2027, part of a broader effort to preserve and celebrate an instrument that has helped shape Catholic worship for centuries.
Old St. Mary Church and St. Stanislaus Oratory are undertaking major organ projects, while St. Francis of Assisi Church is working to restore its historic 1885 Schuelke organ.
The projects coincide with organ concerts across the Milwaukee area, including a recent series at St. Jerome Church, Oconomowoc, featuring organist Simone Gheller performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Together, they highlight the distinctive sound and enduring role of the instrument long associated with Catholic liturgy.
“When you hear an organ, that screams ‘sacred’ to you,” said Ryan Boren, organist at St. Stanislaus Oratory and assisting organist at Old St. Mary. Both those churches are seeing changes coming to their historic organs.
“This can really only be one thing, especially when it’s dignified, noble music, how much the organ is so well tailored to.”
St. Francis of Assisi Church’s 1885 organ is undergoing restoration. Organist Karen Beaumont said it is the only Schuelke organ of its kind remaining in the manufacturer’s hometown of Milwaukee.
“The Schuelke sound is not easy to describe, but it is unique,” Beaumont said.
“We have the opportunity to restore this instrument so that future generations will also be able to learn the lessons this organ has to teach.”
Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Iowa is restoring the instrument at a cost of $600,000, which Beaumont says is typical. Her concert Nov. 15 is meant to raise money and awareness of the restoration. “Instead of being a museum piece, this instrument is sort of like a prophet,” Beaumont said, “bringing us a different idea of what it means to be human, to listen and make music.”
Old St. Mary Church in downtown Milwaukee is preparing for a new organ built by Greenleaf Organ Company that will incorporate historic Schuelke pipework. The two-manual instrument will feature 28 stops, 32 ranks and 1,788 pipes.
A rendering depicts the new pipe organ planned for St. Stanislaus Oratory in Milwaukee. The instrument, being built by Saint John’s Abbey Organ Builders, is expected to be installed in 2027. (Courtesy rendering)
Boren said the previous instrument’s sound was weakened by a drywall enclosure inside its case that absorbed sound. The new design will position the pipes to project more clearly into the church, providing stronger support for congregational singing and music at weddings.
Greenleaf will use the historic pipes as the foundation for a more cohesive instrument, adding new pipework designed to complement the original voices. Production is expected to take 17 to 21 months, followed by six to eight weeks of installation and three to four weeks of voicing, when builders adjust the pipes’ sound.
At St. Stanislaus Oratory, a larger instrument being built by Saint John’s Abbey Organ Builders will feature three manuals, 50 stops, 68 ranks and 3,396 pipes — approximately three times the size of the existing organ.
Designed for the Oratory’s traditional Latin liturgy, including Gregorian chant and polyphony, the instrument will feature 18th-century European-inspired construction and historical tuning systems.
The organ’s freestanding case, positioned closer to the front of the choir loft, will also help project its sound into the church.
Although significantly larger, Boren said the new organ is not intended to be overpowering. He expects a stronger presence with a refined character and a wider variety of musical colors.
Construction will take more than two years, with approximately four weeks for installation and three months for voicing.
The histories of the Catholic Church and the organ have been dramatically intertwined, particularly because of the nature of the instrument.
“Music is an offering to God, and it should be of the highest quality and standard. And it should elevate,” said David Bahrke, the subdean and program chair of the American Guild of Organists-Milwaukee Chapter.
“It’s sacred. It raises the text and the music, the tune, raises one’s mind to a higher level of spiritual thought and prayer and takes us up out of the world. And that’s really why we come to worship, why we come to Mass.”
Organists will often say that the power of its sound also involves the architecture of the space it’s being played within, as it dramatically affects the acoustics that the organ plays within.
Organist Karen Beaumont will perform a fundraising recital Sunday, Nov. 15, at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milwaukee, supporting restoration of the church’s historic 1885 Schuelke pipe organ. (Submitted photo)
“It’s sort of a cliche in organ circles, that the most important stop on any organ is the room. It’s very much a true thing that if you take one organ and transplant it into a suburban carpeted church, low ceilings, it’s not going to perform well,” Boren explains. “If you go into a very reverberant space with hard surfaces and big cubic air volume, the organ can sort of bloom and blossom.”
Bahrke adds that the organ allows one person to fill such large spaces with a sound that not only offers the sonic feel of many orchestral instruments but somewhat replicates the harmonic cacophony of the human voice. It may be the reason why even modern Church documents hold the organ in a high place in Catholic worship culture.
“The organ is the only solo instrument that has the capability of leading a larger congregation in singing because of its tonal resource. It’s also directly parallel to the human voice because it’s a wind, air-driven instrument,” Bahrke said.
“The Second Vatican Council, in its 1963 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, stated that the organ ‘is to be held in high esteem as the traditional instrument that adds splendor to ceremonies and lifts the mind to God.’”
Other Milwaukee-area organ concerts scheduled for November
Organ Recital — Karen Beaumont
St. Joseph Center Chapel, Milwaukee
Sunday, Nov. 15, 1 p.m.
St. Francis of Assisi Church, Milwaukee
St. Cecilia’s Day Organ and Choral Concert
Sunday, Nov. 22, 3:30 p.m.
St. Joseph Center Chapel, Milwaukee
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