Elgin’s Bethlehem Lutheran next stop on Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour

The next stop on the 2025-2026 Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour will be this Sunday, April 26, at 4 p.m. at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 340 Grand Blvd. in Elgin.

The instrument featured is the 1940 M.P. Moller pipe organ, Opus 6885, from the church’s original building at Villa and Fulton streets. It was brought over when the church’s present building was erected in the 1950s, and had restoration work done in 1982 by James Gruber of Gruber Pipe Organs, Inc.

The concert will be performed by Bethlehem’s own director of music, Peg Youngren, and by Jeff Neufeld, music director at First Congregational and the organizer of the tour.

The performance will feature works for organ with violin, clarinet, flute, and voice as well as organ solos and organ and piano duets.

Admission is free, and a freewill offering will be taken to support Bethlehem Lutheran’s ministries and future organ maintenance projects.

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, choir anthems, and 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.

Freewill 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.