Larry Palmer, a professor of organ and harpsichord, gave aconcert that wasn’t on just any old organ — he playedthe Fisk Opus 101 Organ on Monday to honor the rareinstrument’s 10th anniversary at SMU.
When the organ debuted at Caruth Auditorium in 1993, it becamethe first Fisk Opus at a university in the Southwest. It took 10years for former Meadow’s Dean Eugene Bonelli to save enoughmoney, provided by the Meadows Foundation, to pay for it.
“Fisk organs are the Rolls Royces of the organ world dueto their quality of workmanship,” Palmer said. “Thecompany builds no more than three a year, so once we got our nameon the list, we waited nine years for ours to be built.” TheFisk organ is the one of the finest built instruments anywhere.”Students are able to learn more from a goodinstrument,” Palmer said, “and the Fisk is first rateto teach on.”
The pipes, keyboard and case of this incredible organ ishandmade. Each Fisk is built specifically for the room it is madefor at the Fisk workshop in Massachusetts. In SMU’s case, theorgan was taken apart, transported to Dallas, and reassembled inCaruth Auditorium in August 1992. It was then”playable” in a matter of weeks, but a crew of”finishers” worked every night — all night— for eight months, fine-tuning every pipe so that all would”speak” in the right way. All this work totaled over35,000 hours.
There are Fisk organs in cathedrals and concert halls fromDallas to Switzerland to Japan. The Fisk is known worldwide for itselegant craftsmanship. SMU’s organ was made directly afterthe Fisk Opus 100 in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Monday’s concert, the first of two this month, marked ananniversary for Palmer as well. The internationally known performerplayed the Fisk at its inaugural concert.
Susan Merchant, a professor at Pittsburg State University inKansas, will perform the second concert on Sept. 15, also in CaruthAuditorium. She was instrumental in helping the university acquirethe organ. Merchant made the first CD recording on it in 1998. Shewill be performing as a favor to Palmer because he played a concertfor Pittsburg when it got its Fisk organ.
