Choir & Organ

St. Luke’s Choir

The St. Luke’s Staff Choir sings at the 10:30 am on-line worship service.

The Parish Choir, consisting of approximately two dozen women and men, is open to adults and teens of all musical abilities, and accepts new singers throughout the year.

Listen to the choir sing:

The Organ at St. Luke’s (Lawrence Phelps, Opus 1)

Did you know we have a celebrity in our church?

Well, we do and the name of this celebrity is Laurence Phelps Opus One…  it’s the organ.

Phelps Opus One was designed by the master designer and tonal director of the Cassavant Company, probably the world’s most outstanding builder of fine pipe organs in the 20th and 21st century

Laurence Phelps, by himself designed and directed the building of 649 pipe organs during his career at Casavant, but as he neared retirement, there was one organ he hadn’t yet built. It existed only in his mind, where he could design it according to just his own ideas and preferences, rather than the contracted requirements of those 649 other projects.

 When Phelps came to CSU to build the organ that was originally housed in the old arts building, Robert Cavarra brought him to see the building that was the new St Luke’s, commonly referred to by the neighbors as “The Ark” for its soaring ceilings and rectangular shape. The acoustics, Phelps knew, would be amazing and a perfect setting for his organ, because an organ is only 50% of the sound quality, the building that surrounds it provides the rest.

Thanks to the generosity of Elliot Huidekoper, a longtime St Luke’s parishioner, a check for the full cost of the new organ was written and the result is Laurence Phelps Opus One, built in 1974.   When Laurence Phelps started his new company after retirement from Casavant, out of 649 projects accomplished in his career, he chose Opus One as the cover picture. The greatest compliment he could offer and one we can accept with gratitude and treat with loving care.

The Lawrence Phelps organ was built using French organ-building principles of the eighteenth century. As such, the stop disposition includes many mutations characteristic of the classic French organ.

The Phelps organ is encased with each division in its own case. The Grand Orgue is positioned at the top center of the case with the Positiv directly below (and closest to the organist and choir). The Pedale is divided on either side of the manual divisions. The facade pipework of the Grand Orgue and Positiv is 85% tin while the facade pipes of the Pedale are flamed copper. The key action is mechanical which gives the organist complete control over the speech of each pipe.

Mechanical action, 56 note keyboards, 32 note pedal board, electric combination (8 general combinations, 6 divisional combinations available) and stop action. Equal temperament.

For more photos of the organ go to: http://www.lawrencephelps.com/Documents/Instruments/ftcollins.shtml.