Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour continues Oct. 13 at St. John’s Lutheran

The second stop on the Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour will be on Sunday, Oct. 13, at St. John’s Lutheran Church with their Weickhardt/Gruber Organ dating from 1912.

The program will include works by Bach and Mendelssohn as well as hymn prelude arrangements by American composers Paul Manz, Donald Hustad and Michael Burkhardt, and Canadian composer Healey Willan, with the corresponding hymns sung by the audience.

The concert will begin at 4 p.m. at the church, 115 N. Spring St. in downtown Elgin.

It will be jointly performed by St. John’s music director and organist Dale Woock and Dr. Jeff Neufeld, music director and organist at neighboring First Congregational and the tour organizer.

Admission is free, and a freewill offering will be taken to support Hurricane Helene recovery efforts. A reception will also follow the concert.

The tour will then make its way out to the west side with concerts at Journey of Hope United Methodist on Nov. 17, Christ the Lord Lutheran on Jan. 5, and Westminster Presbyterian on Jan. 19, before returning to downtown Elgin.

The return leg starting in February will feature the pipe organs at St. Laurence Catholic, St. Mary’s Catholic, First Presbyterian, Zion Evangelical Lutheran, Bethlehem Lutheran, and Holy Trinity Lutheran before culminating with an organ and orchestra concert at First Congregational.

Most of the organ concerts will be headlined by Neufeld who holds degrees in organ performance from Wheaton College, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, but some of the concerts will also feature that church’s resident organist, instrumentalists and vocalists, or include a hymn sing.

Visit First Congregational’s website at fcc-elgin.org/organ-tour/ to learn more as the concert dates and times for each church continue to be finalized and published.