Pipe Organ Returns to Embassy Theatre
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe sound of the Grande Page pipe organ will soon be heard again at the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne. For the last 10 months, the organ was being restored in Indianapolis as part of a nearly $80,000 project.
News Release
June 4, 2015
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – After almost 10 months in Indianapolis, the Grande Page pipe organ returned to its home on the Embassy Theatre stage today, June 4.
“We think the Grande Page looks great,” said Kelly Updike, Executive Director of the Embassy Theatre. “Thank you to the Foellinger Foundation for its funding support. The total project cost more than $77,000 dollars and the restored console was worth the wait.”
Carlton Smith Pipe Organ Restorations took the Grande Page from the Embassy on Oct. 8 to repair, rebuild and fine-tune technical aspects of the instrument. The Embassy volunteer organ crew will now work over the next week to tune and reconnect the organ to more than 1200 pipes getting it ready for
several upcoming shows.
The first public performance will be June 14 at the annual Buddy Nolan Tribute Concert. Nolan was one of the Embassy’s most famous organists. This year the 7 p.m. concert will feature organist Ken Double who played the very first Buddy Nolan Tribute concert in 1978. Double has had a lengthy career in broadcasting and music and is currently the president of the American Theatre Organ Society.
Following the Buddy Nolan Tribute concert the Embassy Theatre will present three black and white silent films in which the Grande Page pipe organ will provide musical accompaniment as it did when these movies were first released. They are: June 22, Peter Pan (1924); June 29, Metropolis (1927); and July 6, Ben-Hur (1925). All movies will start at 7 p.m. Discussion will take place before and after the movie led by Jane Martin, communication professor at the University of Saint Francis School of Creative Arts.
In addition, the Grande Page pipe organ will be featured at a family-fun event called Behind the Screen. “Kids enjoy two black and white features,” said Updike, “and after the movies the kids watch the stage hands put away the big movie screen and get a peek of the backstage area. Then kids can enjoy 16 different activities from “making a marquee” to tile rubbings, to a