A little about the webmaster...
My name is Anthony Fabro and I, along with my wife, are members in St. Brendan Catholic Church in Hilliard, OH. Just like with my fascination with trains, I've often been asked how I gained in interest in pipe organs. The answer is simply "I don't know." No one in my family ever played the organ, the church I went to as a kid had a very cheesy sounding electronic organ (and still does), so I'm not sure what it is that sparked the interest.
I can remember as a kid noting things about organs such as when I heard one at a ball game or the sound of a real organ if we went to a different church. I remember watching the organist rise out of the orchestra pit at the Ohio Theatre. We would wave "hello" when the organist came out of the pit, and "goodbye" when the organist descended. In fact I still do that today. I also remember listening to Chicago Blackhawk games on the radio and hearing the big Barton organ play in the background. It's a shame that organ no longer graces us today (though the console does still exist).
I guess the sound just kind of caught my ear. I learned to play the trumpet when I grew up, but now I wish I had learned to play the piano, the precursor to playing the organ. Some day I will learn to do both, hopefully sooner rather than later. I have a great appreciation of the musicians who play the organ. Other than harpists and drummers, I don't believe anyone else plays an instrument with their hands and feet at the same time. Add to it that you might be singing as well and the coordination needed is incredible!
About the Web Page Project
The goal of the pipe organ pages is two-fold. First, the pages are intended to fill a bit of an informational gap. Organ buffs like myself like to search for organs they've heard in person on the internet. However, unless the instrument is large, one rarely finds information about the organ. Since I live in central Ohio the focus will be on the instruments of that region.
Second, the pages are also meant to inform the casual organ listener a little about the organ. For most people, they simply attend church or an event, see either the organist or organ (or both), hear the music, and that's it. However what you see from a seat or pew is only maybe a third of what is involved with the organ. The organist does more than just play notes on a keyboard, and there's more to the organ than the pipes themselves. My goal is to convey the other two-thirds information in a format which is simple and fairly non-technical.
The project started when back in 2006 I approached Ohio Theatre Resident Organist Clark Wilson with the idea of creating a web page about the theater's Robert Morton organ. He agreed with the idea and thus was born http://www.ohiomortonorgan.com which is primarily about the organ but has a little about the theater as well. I then thought maybe I could extend this to other pipe organs in the area. After gaining some interest from a few people locally, I started my own domain and created the current pages.
Thanks for stopping by my pages. If you have any questions, comments, etc. please e-mail me at webmaster@n8rrb.com .
Anthony Fabro
April 2009