The music of a new pipe organ will fill Sursa Music Hall starting Fall Semester.
A $1 million donation made by Mary Jane Sursa and her late husband, David Sursa, will provide a pipe organ made by Goulding and Wood, in Indianapolis. The 50-stop pipe organ will be the final touch for the university's world-class venue, Robert Kvam, dean of the College of Fine Arts, said.
"At the time of building, we did not have the funds for a pipe organ, but it was envisioned and discussed during the architecture," Kvam said. "When you get a state building you get the brick and mortar but no equipment. Equipment for the building has to be from private gifts, like Sursa's donation."
The new organ is affectionately named Opus 45. It is the 45th organ constructed by Goulding & Wood and is their first complete organ constructed for a performance hall. Typically, the company makes organs for churches.
"All pipe organs constructed have been named opus," Monty Thurman, lead engineer at Goulding & Wood, Inc., said. "They are pieces of art. Opus is a romantic term used to describe a composition, which is what Goulding & Wood are trying to create."
The pipe organ will be unveiled during an open house July 25 at Goulding & Wood, Inc. The organ will then be disassembled and transported to Ball State where Kirby Koriath, professor of organ and church music, predicts it will have a lot of use.
"At any semester there's usually about a dozen students actively studying organ," Koriath said. Previously, these students have practiced in churches and on a small teaching organ found in the Hargreaves Music Building.
"Beginning students might still take their lessons here on the small organ, and advanced students will work on the new instrument," Koriath said.
The addition of the pipe organ allows students to explore literature that otherwise would be unavailable to them. The organ is intended to enrich the program and offer more complete, comprehensive training in church music.
The pipe organ will be used for more than educational purposes. Beside major orchestra concerts, the instrument will accompany choral programs, voice programs and instrumental programs, Koriath said.
"[The organ] will serve as a solo recital instrument just like the piano does and also, like the piano, to accompany other musicians," Koriath said.
The first official use of the pipe organ at Ball State is scheduled for Oct. 22. It is the first of three in an inaugural recital series occurring in the upcoming school year. Koriath said the first guest artist would be Professor James David Christie from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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