When I was in divinity school in Washington, DC I attended an American
Guild of Organists event at the Kennedy Center with friends. It was billed as Pipe Screams
and involved several prominent organists in the area sharing the program. I
don't remember too much more about it, other than my reaction being that if I
were going to ever be involved in church music again, one of my goals would be
to do a concert like that.
Fast forward 5 years or so and I had indeed left ordained ministry and was
back in church music. It took a couple more years, but when I was in
Ashland, VA I did my own PipeScreams concert. I strove to target the children
and youth in our congregation as attendees and got a handful of older students
to help with set-up and decorations. The second year I borrowed a fog
machine from my wife's work (Richmond Ballet); the kids hung all kinds of
spooky decorations in the organ chambers. We all had a blast with it.
When I landed in Black Mountain, NC 8 years ago, I began PipeScreams
again, in my third year. It's been a big hit. A couple of years in I got a
church member to construct a couple of home-made fog machines. We invite everyone to come in costume; plenty
of folks of all ages do. We have tried getting flyers in the hands of school
students to encourage them to attend. We've tried newspaper and radio
publicity. But the biggest thing that has drawn folks has been word of mouth,
as the event has held steady over the years.
I have tried different gimmicks along the way. One year a young
attendee was so struck by the fog that she draw a picture of the organ with
"smoke" coming out of it. The next year, I used that image on the
cover of the program. Three different years I have had piano students of mine
play one of their "spooky" sounding pieces on the organ as part of
the program. Most years I do a short introduction to the organ about halfway
through the event: I explain some basics about the instrument, let a couple of
kids blow a pipe; that sort of thing. The repertoire has held steady over the years with some perennial favorites. I have introduced different music and rotate through those titles over the course of several years. If you're interested you can view my working repertoire document here.
PipeScreams is one of three organ events I do during the year. I do a
child-friendly Christmas concert in December. I also do a more formal
"sacred concert" for Good Friday most years. I feel that PipeScreams
and JinglePipes lay the groundwork for a child or older student to experience
the Good Friday concert. I haven't had this pattern in place long enough to
really see folks (children) making that connection and making the transition
from the "fun" concerts to the more "serious" one. But I am
hopeful that I'll see that soon.
We've begun our publicity for PipeScreams this year, but I could use
some help with a title. Read below for the previous year's names. Drop a note
in the comments if you have an idea.
PipeScreams
PipeScreams II, Scream Louder
PipeScreams III, Nightmare on Montreat Road
PipeScreams IV, Smokin' Pipes
PipeScreams V, Mikey's Back
PIpeScreams VI, ????
