The Organs
Buzard Opus 21
1999-Present
The heart of our worship experience and central figure in the Simple Gifts Concert Series is our sanctuary organ, built by John Paul Buzard Organ Builders in 1999 with tonal revisions and refurbishment in 2019 by Berghaus Organ Builders of Bellwood, Illinois. We have been blessed to welcome organists from around the world as well as from Chicagoland to play this magnificent instrument. It is a three-manual, sixty-nine rank instrument with a curved, terraced, drawknob console made of solid cherry and walnut.
Read more about the vision for GCC’s Buzard organ on the Buzard Organ Builders website.
the parlor organ in the commons – wicks pipe organ builders opus 1751
Built for Bethany Lutheran Church of Baltimore, Maryland, the Wicks pipe organ was moved to Good Shepherd Metropolitan Community Church of Chicago. When the congregation disbanded, the organ was moved to the Northway/Kraus residence of West Rogers Park. After a fire caused smoke damage to the instrument, it was carefully restored by the Berghaus Organ Builders of Bellwood, Illinois. It was purchased in 2019 by members of Glenview Community Church as a gift for its new Commons. The organ was further restored by David Brown of Buzard Organ Company of Champaign, Illinois, for use in its new home.
Möeller Organ
1956–1999 M.P. Möeller, Opus 8960
The original sanctuary organ was built and installed by M.P. Möeller Company of Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1959, the sanctuary was enlarged to approximately twice its original size. The wind pressure was increased and two new stops were added at that time. The three divisions were housed in the same chambers of the current organ, with the Swell in the south chamber, the Choir in the north chamber, and the Great in the center. The façade pipes were the 16’ Violone, a rank which was added to the Pedal in 1959. The organ had 1609 pipes arranged in 29 ranks, with 34 stops.
The action of the organ was originally electro-pneumatic, but was replaced with solid-state combination action in 1994 by the Bradford Organ Company of Evanston, providing ninety-nine levels of computer memory for each of the pistons on the organ.
