We finally did it.  Our Aeolian Opus 1280, installed in 1914 in
the Gould house at 47th St. and 5th Ave., New York, was celebrated
with a Centennial weekend event here in Missouri.

Our neighborhood was the first to come, on Friday night.  The
neighbors had suffered construction dust and other inconvenience
when we built our organ room in the back yard in the year 2000.  On
Saturday morning young parents and children came for a very informal,
hands-on educational event that was followed by an afternoon concert
of sophisticated music for the more musically astute.

A twenty minute video preceded the concert.  In the video, the
history of Aeolian and the specific organ were explained.  Some
neighbors who have teenaged children studying music came a second
time to events with more serious music.  Actually, seven people
attended the event a second time.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, some members of the local chapter of the
American Guild of Organists (AGO) attended a similar concert.  The
Saturday afternoon attendees represented MMD and various mechanical
music groups.  Each event was tailored to the group attending.  The
AGO group had requested open console following the prepared program,
and that is exactly what happened.

Our centennial was a success.  On Sunday, the AGO members gave
instruction to the teenagers who were interested.  At a future date
some of the young piano students will return, bringing their teachers.
Requests have been made that we host piano recitals on our 7' and 9'
reproducing pianos which could be used for this purpose.

Bob Taylor
Missouri