Enthusiasts perform pipe organ transplant

Written by Jeanne Davant

Largest theater instrument in the state comes to Colorado Springs

Dave Weesner’s fingers fly over the four keyboards of a huge organ console. Every so often he flicks one of the nearly 400 stops arranged in a horseshoe shape around the keyboards, or steps on the foot pedals to modify the tones he’s producing.

The magnificent instrument known as the Kremer Wurlitzer hybrid theater pipe organ – the largest of its kind in the state – now resides in the gym adjacent to Immanuel Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs. Its official premiere performance will be held this month.

Weesner, an architect and member of the Pikes Peak Area Theatre Organ Society, headed a team of pipe organ enthusiasts – all over age 60 – to relocate the massive instrument from its former home in a specially built “organ barn” near Kiowa.

Under an agreement with Immanuel Lutheran Church, the pipe organ is now playing in the former school gymnasium and will be featured in upcoming concerts and other programs.

It took more than a year for the team to break down and reassemble the organ, an instrument that is much larger than just the visible console. Its inner workings fill 1,600 square feet of floor space in specially built, two-story rooms backstage

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