Feature: MALLORY HANEY LOO OPENS THE PAUL S. HESSELINK CONCERT SERIES FRIDAY, SEPT. 18

The pipe organ has a reputation for being the grand old instrument of classical music and church sanctuaries. But listen a little closer, and you discover that those massive pipes can do far more than Bach. They can whisper, roar, shimmer, imitate an orchestra and, in the right hands, even rock. That is exactly the point Mallory Haney Loo, organist and pianist LCCC (M.M. in Organ Performance), plans to make Friday night when she opens the 2026–2027 Paul S. Hesselink Concert Series at Christ Church Episcopal on Sept. 18.

The free concert showcases the organ's versatility, blending traditional pieces with contemporary and popular music, inspiring curiosity among music enthusiasts and community members.

Presented by the Southern Nevada Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the concert offers a program that refuses to put the organ in a musical box. Alongside Bach, Liszt, and French composer Charles Tournemire, Haney Loo will perform music by contemporary Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi. She will also bring her Chilean heritage and love of popular music to the instrument with organ arrangements of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Los Jaivas’ “La Poderosa Muerte” and Quilapayún’s “El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido.”

The result is a program that moves across centuries, continents and musical styles while demonstrating just how versatile a pipe organ can be.

For Haney Loo, that kind of musical exploration is part of the mission.

A Chilean-American organist and pianist based in Los Angeles, Haney Loo has built a career around connecting the historic organ tradition with Latin American music, contemporary repertoire, transcriptions and popular culture. She began studying piano at age four and, remarkably, began volunteering as a church organist at 12.

She continued her early musical education at the Conservatorio de Música de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile, where she studied piano and music theory on scholarship. She later moved to the United States and earned a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington, where she studied with Dr. Janette Fishell. In 2023, she completed a Master of Music in Organ Performance at the USC Thornton School of Music, where she studied with Professor Cherry Rhodes on a full scholarship.

Since then, Haney Loo’s concert career has taken her throughout the United States, Europe and South America. Her performances have included a concert tour of Chile and Argentina, the 75th anniversary celebration of the historic Steinmeyer organ at Mariannhill Klosterkirche in Würzburg, Germany, and appearances at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.

But while the great organs and great composers are an important part of her work, Haney Loo is equally interested in introducing the instrument to people who might not ordinarily attend an organ concert.

That means putting music on the program that audiences already know.

Her programming, reflecting her Chilean heritage and love of popular music, aims to connect with audiences on a personal level and encourage support for cultural diversity in the arts.

The approach also has a personal dimension. In September 2026, following widespread attention in Chile surrounding her performance of the Chilean National Anthem on the organ, Haney Loo was interviewed by Buenos Días a Todos, the nationally broadcast morning program of Televisión Nacional de Chile, about her career and her work as a Chilean organist living and performing in the United States.

In Los Angeles, Haney Loo serves as Organist and Pianist at Lighted Window Congregational Church in La Cañada Flintridge, where she performs for worship, Evensongs and special musical programs. She also founded and organizes the church's monthly organ concert series and is leading an initiative to support restoring its historic 1925 Estey pipe organ.

She remains active with the American Guild of Organists and serves as a Member at Large of the Los Angeles Chapter. For more info, visit malloryhaneyorganista.com and follow on social media @malloryhaneyorganista.

All of those experiences come together Friday night in Las Vegas. Rather than treating the pipe organ as an artifact of another musical era, Haney Loo approaches it as a living instrument—one capable of carrying centuries-old compositions, contemporary classical music, Latin American traditions and rock into the same room.

What better way to open a new concert season than with a reminder that sometimes the best way to appreciate a familiar instrument is to hear it doing something completely unexpected?

Mallory Haney Loo performs at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, at Christ Church Episcopal, 2000 S. Maryland Parkway. The concert is free and open to the public.