Immanuel Lutheran in East Dundee next stop on annual pipe organ tour

Posted January 06, 2026 11:16 pm

By Jeff Neufeld, Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour

The next two stops on the 2025-26 Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour are going a little beyond the borders of Elgin.

The first will be on Sunday, Jan. 11, at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 310 E. Main St. in East Dundee. Note, it will be an earlier time of 3 p.m.

The instrument featured is the church’s 1971 Casavant Frères pipe organ, and the program, with a theme of “Once More Through the Season,” will comprise Christmas and Epiphany selections performed by the choirs and instrumentalists of Immanuel Lutheran led by Director of Music and Worship William Gade and Associate Director of Music Kris Bartelt on the organ.

Jeff Neufeld, music director at First Congregational Church and coordinator of the tour, also will perform several organ works. Admission is free, and a freewill offering will be taken to support Immanuel Lutheran’s ministries.

The following week, the tour will make a stop in Streamwood at Immanuel United Church of Christ at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18. That program will feature the church’s historic 1888 tracker organ — one of the oldest surviving organs in the area — that was restored in 1982 by the Berghaus Organ Company of Bellwood and later converted to a hybrid pipe and digital organ by Triune Music of Elmhurst. Neufeld will perform the entire program.

On Sunday, Jan. 18, the Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour will feature a historic 1888 tracker organ, one of the oldest surviving organs in the area, at Immanuel United Church of Christ in Streamwood. Courtesy of Immanuel UCC

The Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour is a series of free concerts, begun in 2024, showcasing Elgin’s and the surrounding area’s many unique pipe organs.

The concerts feature local organists and the host church’s own musicians, and program content varies from formal organ repertoire, to chamber ensembles, to hymn-sings. The mission of the series is to revive interest in the pipe organ, open up new performance venues, and provide an affordable concert experience to the community.

Free-will offerings are taken at each concert to benefit the host church’s programs and ministries, but additional general donations to support the organ tour or sponsor guest instrumentalists can be made to First Congregational Church.

Visit fcc-elgin.org/organ-tour or contact Jeff Neufeld through the church office for more information.