Concert will raise funds to refurbish farthest-north tracker organ

In a world where everything runs on electricity, even public prayer, the pipe organ at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Chugiak is something of a rarity. It's a mechanical instrument, a so-called "tracker" organ. That means that the keys are physically linked to the valves that control the flow of air to the pipes.

Most organs nowadays use electric relays for the job, the keyboard being something like a series of on-off light switches. With fewer moving parts, the modern technology is relatively trouble-free. The pipes can be located somewhere away from the keyboard. And many of these newer instruments sound utterly magnificent.

But purists appreciate — and virtuosos seek out — the models that use the old-school machinery that Bach was familiar with. The national Organ Historical Society, based in Richmond, Virginia, keeps a list. According to them, the organ at Our Redeemer is the farthest-north tracker in the Western Hemisphere.

At 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 7, three accomplished organists will present a concert at the church to raise funds for an overhaul of the instrument. They include Darrell Bailey, professor at Purdue University in Indiana; international touring organist and pianist Harold Brown of Virginia; and John Zimmerman of Anchorage, winner of several music competitions and something of an organ mechanic himself, having worked on the restoration of the antique instrument at Boston's Old West Church.

We should point out that organs never quite become antiques, no matter how old they are. With proper maintenance they last hundreds of years and, around the world, many are still played every Sunday just as they have been since before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.

In Europe the historical instruments, like the one in Notre Dame Cathedral, are all mechanical, Bailey said. "There was no electricity in Bach's day." At least none you could plug into with any degree of safety.

Despite teaching in Indiana, Bailey is a frequent guest artist at Our Redeemer. His wife, Herminia Din, is a professor of art at the University of Alaska Anchorage and he spends his summers here.

For the player, the tracker action has a different feel than electric keys.

"It's more like what a pianist feels playing a grand piano versus playing a digital keyboard," he said. "The response is different."

Sharp ears can detect a difference, too, a subtle taste of smoothness and control, palpably demonstrated by the late virtuoso E. Power Biggs on a CBS record from the LP era.

The organ was originally built for Our Redeemer in 1985. It was constructed by the Kenneth Jones company of Bray, Ireland, to specifications provided by Grace Miller, the church's organist at the time.

Thirty years on and the time has come for a complete maintenance go-over, scheduled to start in October. That involves dismantling, cleaning, making necessary repairs, regulating the action, reassembling the parts and tuning. (Yes, organs need tuning from time to time.) While the technicians are about that process, they'll add new pipes and two new trumpet stops, increasing the "voices" that the organ is capable of playing. When the project is complete the instrument will have 14 stops and almost 1,000 pipes.

Of course it will cost. While the upcoming concert is free, donations will be requested to help pay for the overhaul. The program includes music by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Widor, transcriptions of works by Chopin and Debussy, and of course, Bach. A wine and cheese reception will follow the program.

The Rev. James Baumgartner tells us the best way to get to Our Redeemer, 18444 Old Glenn Highway, is to take the South Birchwood exit off the Glenn Highway.

You can find old tracker organs in Scandinavian churches all the way up to the Arctic Circle and beyond. Bailey himself has played one in Tromso, Norway, which is farther north than Atigun Pass, above the Arctic Circle on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. But in the New World, the Chugiak instrument appears to be the northernmost, a testimony to the ingenuity of craftsmen who devised ways to construct such a complex machine entirely by hand.

"The tracker system has withstood the test of time," Bailey said.

Jazz in August

The Alaska Jazz Workshop's annual Jazz Camp starts on Monday and, as is customary, students and faculty will perform for the public at the end of the weeklong intensive. The faculty concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, and will feature bass player and vocalist Kristin Korb. Originally from Montana, Korb now resides in Denmark from which she manages a career that takes her around the world — not just as a musician, but as the president of the International Society of Bassists.

Korb studied with Bertram Turetzky and Ray Brown. Her first recording was with the Ray Brown Trio. In the past she's caught attention with her arrangements of jazz standards, but her latest album, "Finding Home," due for release in September, will feature her own compositions.

The Friday concert will feature a bass quartet — bet you haven't heard that grouping before — with Korb, Bob Andrews, Joel Stomoolis and Norberto DeJesus. Other performers include George Pierce, John Damberg, Mark Manners, Cameron Cartland, Karen Strid, Brenda Bulgamore and Sage Romey. Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, available at the door at the UAA Fine Arts Building recital hall.

The student jazz ensembles will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, also at the UAA recital hall. Tickets for that are $5.

Cross-cultural pioneer

Paul Berg was a Bureau of Indian Affairs teacher on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1973 when the siege of Wounded Knee ended with gunfire after 72 days. Familiar with violence from his stint in Vietnam, Berg struggled with trying to provide education to his students in the bloody conflict and ultimately became a national expert in the new field of cross-cultural education. His book, "Sandra's Hands: A Reflective Journey from the Vietnam War to the Siege of Wounded Knee" is considered one of the key documents in the field. With Alaska educators Bill Demmert and Richard Dauenhauer he built Alaska's first cross-cultural education course required for teacher certification in the state.

Berg will speak on the effect of current educational policies in Alaska and the U.S. at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, at the UAA Campus Bookstore. The talk is free and the public is invited. UAA parking is free on weekends. Podcasts of UAA bookstore talks can be heard at http://bit.ly/29QPoBP.

Diamond willow sings

I thought I'd heard every kind of musical instrument there was, but I never heard a flute made from diamond willow until last month in Yukon Territory. William Greenland, a Gwich'in singer/songwriter/storyteller and all-around entertainer, produced and played the instrument during the Moosehide Celebration in the traditional village site just north of Dawson.

Greenland, previously from Inuvik, now lives in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He happened upon the Native American flute in 2009 on a trip to Navajo country in Arizona. (The Gwich'in and Navajo dialects are both part of the Athabaskan language group.) While there he brought back a Navajo-style flute and found it particularly therapeutic.

Since then he's studied the instrument and become good enough to have earned a nomination in the 2015 Indigenous Music Awards, a Canada-based program. He's also made his own flutes, including the one carved from the diamond willow found in the far north and often seen in tourist shops. The diamond willow flute has a sound somewhat brighter than the ones made in the Lower 48.