Kimmel Center's Free Organ Tour Demonstration Features Frederick Haas Today

Kimmel Center's FREE Building and Theater Tours continues their monthly tour of The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ featuring special guest Frederick Haas performing a live demonstration today, April 5 at 1 p.m. Audiences may experience the King of Instruments for 15 minute demo, a monthly offering featuring a different special guest organist each month.

The Kimmel Center's Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ is the largest mechanical pipe organ in a concert venue in the United States, using two organ consoles with 6,938 pipes.

Philanthropist and organist Frederick Haas will lead the organ tour on April 5. He is chair of the Kimmel Center Organ committee with a love of music passed down to him by his grandfather, Fred J. Cooper -a jeweler and organist in the Philadelphia area for many years, and to whom the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ is dedicated. The next organ tour to take place this spring will feature Tim Evers (May 3).

The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ took over six years and 52,000 man hours of planning, construction, and voicing to complete and fill Verizon Hall with a sound like no other. The organ's pipes are made out of wood or metal depending on the type of sound being produced and range in size as large as two feet square, 32 feet tall, to a slender drinking straw.

The free Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ demonstration as part of Kimmel's FREE Building Tour takes place on the First Saturday of every month at 1pm, and begins with a 15 minute organ demonstration of the instrument's unparalleled and dramatic sounds LIVE in Verizon Hall. Tours are offered at 1pm daily, on a first-come, first-served basis.

There will be no regular tour on Saturday, June 7, as Kimmel Center presents its third annual Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ Day. This FREE event begins with Children's Hour with PNC Grow Up Great theatrical puppet performance accompanied by a performance on the organ, allowing youngsters to experience the King of Instruments. Then the four hour marathon of organ music officially kicks off at noon, featuring two silent films to be accompanied by the organ, as well as a variety of other entertainment.

Visitors may register for public tours at the Kimmel Center's Information Desk in the Commonwealth Plaza, which opens at 10 a.m. daily. All tours are led by experienced volunteer guides. Kimmel Center and Academy of Music tours are appropriate for adults and children over the age of 10. Let our talented volunteer show you around!

The Building & Theater Tours are one hour long and take place daily from Monday - Sunday, 1 p.m., highlighting the history of the Kimmel Center, Architectural highlights, visits to theaters, including Verizon Hall, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Peter Nero and the Philly POPS , and Kimmel Center Presents, and the Dorrance H. Hamilton Rooftop Garden. Specialty Art & Architecture tours are offered at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays.

For group tour reservations or more information about Kimmel Center or Academy of Music tours, please call 215-790-5886.