June 12 Recital Celebrates the Pipe Organ

On Sunday June 12 at 3 PM, the First Church in Jaffrey will host the Monadnock Chapter
of the American Guild of Organists, whose members will perform glorious music from the
17th through the 20th centuries on the pipe organ built for the church in 1975 by John Wessel
of Brattleboro, Vermont. This recital presents a rare opportunity to experience first hand
the power and versatility of a New England pipe organ created specifically for the church's
sanctuary space. AGO members performing include Richard Boutwell, Kevin Mathieu, Ann
Carley, Dorothy Anita Smith, Robert Popple, and Gene Faxon. Rene Waligora, a well known
concert organist will also play, as will her husband Robin Dinda who also composes for the
organ. The pipe organ's capabilities and range will be aptly demonstrated in pieces by Charles
Marie Widor, Beethoven, J.S. Bach, Johann Pachelbel, Gilbert Martin, Robin Dinda,
Charles Ives, and Theodore Dubois.
This recital will also honor John Wessel,who still lives in Brattleboro at age 88, and is
expected to attend the concert. Wessel was born in Holland in 1923 and apprenticed to the
Van Leeuwen organ firm at age 13. He evaded capture and transport to a German factory
during the Nazi occupation and came to the United States in 1953 for a job with the Estey
Organ Company in Brattleboro, Vermont. When Estey closed in 1960, Wessel began his
own business, building, rebuilding, and maintaining organs in New England. In addition
to Jaffrey Center, Wessel built organs for churches in Middlebury and Windsor in Vermont
and for Lyme and Troy in New Hampshire. First Church in Jaffrey contracted with Wessel
to build a pipe organ in 1974 at a cost of $10,716; the organ was dedicated in June 1975.
In its construction, Wessel used seasoned wooden parts and pipes from a used church
organ in Worcester and then designed and constructed many of the new components in his
Brattleboro shop.

First Church's Minister of Music Gene Faxon believes that while the Wessel organ with its 589
pipes is a modest 20th century pipe organ housed in a small rural church, the instrument "has
clarity of tone and great versatility." Moreover, even with guitars and folk music making
inroads into religious services, "the sacred sound of an organ is inextricably linked with
church music."

The pipe organ recital is free and open to the public. It will be followed by a reception. First
Church is located on Laban Ainsworth Way, across from the historic Meetinghouse, in Jaffrey
Center, 2 miles west of downtown Jaffrey. For information on musical events, services and
other programs at First Church, call 603-532-7979 or go to firstchurchinjaffrey.org

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