Poll: Your church - organ, piano, band or other?

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Originally Posted by Karen

Have you tried advertising with the AGO American Guild of Organists? We had several good candidates the last time we advertised, and interviewed 5 people.

Of course, I'm in the Boston area, which is pretty densely populated with music schools and programs, so ... we may have had an advantage that way. Is there a music program at any of the nearby colleges that you might be able to coordinate with to get a student organist, at least for a year or so?

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Karen, last year we had a wonderful organist, he was Episcopal, but he knew Lutheran music very well. This year he wanted a little more than the church can afford. Now we are looking for one through AGO and all around Pittsburgh for a student organist. I guess Pittsburgh is a smaller market than Boston.

We have a highly trained (master degree) musician in charge of our music. He plays organ, piano and several other instruments. He also conducts the choir (33 voices, 5 parts) and our hand bell choir. During Christmas, he adds a children's choir.

Most of the time, he plays the organ. Once in a while he brings the piano out from the back room and uses that for a song or 2.

We have a full set of handbells, and the adult handbell ringers are getting quite good; the program is now 5 years old. He started a children's handbell ringers group about 2 years ago.

At the Christmas and Easter services, he brings in a few other musicians, including a clarinet and a trumpet.

For the music prior to the service, he is flexible enough to be able to compose a medley of the songs we will be hearing during that service. The songs are artistically done at this point, so they don't always sound the way you expect!

We have a wonderful music director at our church and he is also a very good pianist and organist, although our church does employ an organist/pianist, so that the music director can direct the choir and handbells. Many members of the congregation, including my husband, will participate when asked doing percussion.
Although we don't have a contemporary service any longer, we do have the band and they participate frequently in worship, They have a couple of guitarists, drummer and vocalists.
And there is an instrumental ensemble made up of many in the congregation who enjoy picking up their instruments and participating in worship. They play once/month.