Kimmel Center Now Offering Free Monthly Organ Tour Through May

The KimMel Center's Building and Theater Tour now features a FREE monthly Organ Tour with a 15 minute demonstration on The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ in Verizon Hall, in partnership with the American Guild of Organists. On the first Saturday of every month, patrons can now experience the King of Instruments with a performance of program excerpts demonstrating the power and vocal prowess behind the largest mechanical pipe organ in the United States.

Organists Michael Stairs (Feb. 1), Dr. John Rameri (March 1), Fred Haas (April 5) and Tim Evers (May 3) are scheduled to provide a 15 minute demonstration with talk back opportunity.

The 6,938 pipe organ in Verizon Hall is currently the largest mechanical-action pipe organ in the United States. The project itself 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 KimMel Center's Building and Theater Tour (Monday-Sunday, 1 p.m.) is one of several touring options at the KimMel Center campus. Additional tours include the Art & Architecture Tour (Saturdays at 10:30 a.m.) and Academy of Music Tour (Select dates, 11:30 a.m.). Group tours are available for parties of 12 or more. Requests must be made at least two weeks in advance of tour date. Visit Kimmelcenter.org/planning/tours.php for more information, stop by the Information Desk in the KimMel Center's Commonwealth Plaza or call 215-790-5886 for reservations.

The annual Organ Day, a free five hour public performance on The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 7. This FREE event begins with a Children's Hour featuring PNC Grow Up Great theatrical puppet performance, followed by a four hour marathon of organ music kicking off at noon that features two silent films to be accompanied by the organ, and a variety of other organ entertainment.

Organ performances are made possible through a donation by the Fred J. Cooper Restoration Fund as recommended by Fredrick R. Haas and Daniel K. Meyer.