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Curtis Organ
The Curtis Organ, named for publisher Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, Cyrus H.K. Curtis, is one of the largest pipe organs in the world with 162 ranks and 10,731 pipes. The concert organ, of American Symphonic design, was manufactured by the Austin Organs, Inc., Austin Organ Company as its Opus 1416 in 1926 for the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition. It was known as the "Organists' Organ" because the specifications were formulated by Henry S. Fry, John M'E. Ward, Rollo F. Maitland, Frederick Maxson, and S. Wesley Sears, all prominent Philadelphia organists. History Curtis acquired the instrument after the Exposition went bankrupt and donated it to the University of Pennsylvania, where it was divided into two halves and incorporated into Irvine Auditorium at the time of the building's construction. The organ contains the largest Universal Air Chest ever built by Austin. In its original configuration in the Auditorium building, the organ spread 75 feet across its platform at ...
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Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis
Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis (June 18, 1850June 7, 1933) was an American publisher of magazines and newspapers, including the ''Ladies' Home Journal'' and ''The Saturday Evening Post''.Ingham, John N. Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders: A-G. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1983, pp. 230–234. Early life and education Curtis was born in Portland, Maine. He was forced to leave high school after his first year to start working after his family lost their home in the 1866 1866 Great fire of Portland, Maine, Great Fire of Portland.''Discover Maine: Midcoast & Casco Bay'', volume 34, issue 5 (2025), p. 14 Career Curtis held a variety of newspaper and advertising jobs in Portland and Boston before starting his first publication, a weekly called the ''People's Ledger'', in Boston in 1872. In 1876, he moved to Philadelphia, then a major publishing center, to reduce his printing costs. Curtis's first wife was Louisa Knapp Curtis, Louisa Knapp, whom he married in 1875.'' ...
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Keith Chapman (organist)
Keith Chapman (1945–1989) was an American concert organist known best for his flair at playing in the symphonic style of organ performance, and particularly for his long and distinguished association (1966–1989) with the Wanamaker's Department Store of Philadelphia as the principal organist of the Wanamaker Organ. Early history Chapman was born on July 16, 1945 in San Bruno, California and grew up in San Bruno, California. An organ prodigy, he began formal study at age 5 with S. Leslie Grow, a student of Marcel Dupré. Chapman was the accompanist to the Capuchino High School Concert Choir while it was directed by Otto Mielenz. Having studied with Richard Purvis, the organist at the time of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, Chapman eventually took up post there as Assistant Organist. Chapman came to Philadelphia where he attended the Curtis Institute of Music from 1964 to 1968, studying organ under Alexander McCurdy who had also been Purvis's teacher. Chapman received ...
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Individual Pipe Organs In The United States
An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities. The concept of an individual features in many fields, including biology, law, and philosophy. Every individual contributes significantly to the growth of a civilization. Society is a multifaceted concept that is shaped and influenced by a wide range of different things, including human behaviors, attitudes, and ideas. The culture, morals, and beliefs of others as well as the general direction and trajectory of the society can all be influenced and shaped by an individual's activities. Etymology From the 15th century and earlier (and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics) ''individual'' meant " indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meanin ...
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Electric And Electronic Keyboard Instruments
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwell's equations. Common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges and many others. The presence of either a positive or negative electric charge produces an electric field. The motion of electric charges is an electric current and produces a magnetic field. In most applications, Coulomb's law determines the force acting on an electric charge. Electric potential is the work done to move an electric charge from one point to another within an electric field, typically measured in volts. Electricity plays a central role in many modern technologies, serving in electric power where electric current is used to energise equipment, and in electronics dealing with electrical c ...
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Wanamaker Organ
The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the largest fully functioning pipe organ in the world, based on the number of playing pipes, the number of ranks and its weight. The Wanamaker Organ is located within a spacious 7-story Grand Court at the John Wanamaker Store (originally Wanamaker's and most recently Macy's) and was played twice a day Monday through Saturday. The organ was featured at several special concerts held throughout the year, including events featuring the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Festival Chorus and Brass Ensemble. Notable characteristics The Wanamaker Organ was the largest fully functioning pipe organ in the world, based on the number of playing pipes, the number of ranks and its weight. (The Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ has more pipes but fewer ranks). It is a concert organ of the American Symphonic school of design, which combines traditional organ tone with the sonic colors of the symphony orchestra. In its pres ...
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Ken Cowan
Kenneth Andrew Cowan (born December 19, 1974) is a Canadian church and concert organist who currently serves as professor of organ at the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Biography A native of Thorold, Ontario, he has toured extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and has made numerous recordings, most on the JAV label. Cowan is a graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music (Bachelor of Music) and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Master of Music and Artist Diploma). He has held positions at Saint Bartholomew's Church, Saint James Episcopal Church, the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in New York City, Saint Clement's Church, Philadelphia, and Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, where he served as Assistant Professor of Organ and Coordinator of Organ and Sacred Music, where he was awarded the 2008 Rider University Distinguished Teaching Award. He has also been on the roster of Associate Organists for the ...
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Ted Alan Worth
Ted Alan Worth (November 5, 1935 – December 27, 1998) was an American church and concert organist, recording artist, and entrepreneur of the pipe organ. Biography An associate of Virgil Fox, he performed during his career on some of the largest pipe organs in the United States and made numerous compact disc recordings. Between 1966 and 1978 he toured throughout the U.S. and Canada with organist Andy Crow as the Worth/Crow Duo; the duo were managed on the tour by Columbia Artists Management Columbia Artists Management (CAMI) was an international talent management agency. On August 29, 2020, the agency announced plans to shut down amid a disturbance in business caused by the " prolonged pandemic environment". History Based in New Yor .... In November 1983 he played the inaugural concert on the Ruffatti organ at the Ruth Barrus Concert Hall of Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho). As the American representative for Fratelli Ruffatti, he oversaw the design of ma ...
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Drexel University
Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry, it was renamed Drexel Institute of Technology in 1936, before assuming its current name in 1970. , more than 24,000 students were enrolled in over 70 undergraduate programs and more than 100 master's, doctoral, and professional programs at the university. Drexel's cooperative education program (co-op) is a unique aspect of the school's degree programs, offering students the opportunity to gain up to 18 months of paid, full-time work experience in a field relevant to their undergraduate major or graduate degree program prior to graduation. History 19th century Drexel University was founded in 1891 as the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry by ...
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The Phantom Of The Opera (1925 Film)
''The Phantom of the Opera'' is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel of the same name directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. The film remains most famous for Chaney's ghastly, self-devised make-up, which was kept a studio secret until the film's premiere. The picture also features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards. The last surviving cast member was Carla Laemmle (1909–2014), niece of producer Carl Laemmle, who played a small role as a "prima ballerina" in the film when she was about 15 years old. The first cut of the film was previewed in Los Angeles on January 26, 1925. The film was released on September 6, 1925, premiering at the Astor Theatre in New York. In 1953, the film entered the public domain in the U ...
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MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing, and recording music. A single MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of MIDI data, each of which can be routed to a separate device. Each interaction with a key, button, knob or slider is converted into a MIDI event, which specifies musical instructions, such as a note's pitch, timing and velocity. One common MIDI application is to play a MIDI keyboard or other controller and use it to trigger a digital sound module (which contains synthesized musical sounds) to generate sounds, which the audience hears produced by a keyboard amplifier. MIDI data can be transferred via MIDI or USB cable, or recorded to a sequencer or digital audio workstation to be edited or played back. ...
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Pipe Organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks'', each of which has a common timbre, volume, and construction throughout the keyboard Compass (music), compass. Most organs have many ranks of pipes of differing pitch, timbre, and volume that the player can employ singly or in combination through the use of controls called Organ stop, stops. A pipe organ has one or more keyboards (called ''Manual (music), manuals'') played by the hands, and most have a Pedal keyboard, pedal clavier played by the feet; each keyboard controls its own division (group of stops). The keyboard(s), pedalboard, and stops are housed in the organ's Organ console, ''console''. The organ's continuous supply of wind allows it to sustain notes for as long as the corresponding keys are pressed, ...
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Curtis Institute Of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarship. The Institute also offers needs based financial aid to help cover living expenses. History 20th century The Curtis Institute of Music was founded in 1924, following the formation of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1900 and the Philadelphia Opera Company in 1908 and amidst industrial decline and political corruption in Philadelphia. The institute's founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, a philanthropist, administrator, and major proponent of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, named the new school after her father, publishing magnate Cyrus Curtis. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania chartered the Curtis Institute on April 18, 1924, which opened October 1925 in three mansions at 1727 and 1720 Locust Street and 235 South 18th Street. B ...
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