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Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will open in the autumn of next year: nearly two decades since the first serious discussions for a new performing arts center and a superlative quality concert organ for Kansas City took place.   It has taken about the same length of time to build a pipe organ for the Kauffman Center that it will take to erect the facility, itself.  Nearly six years will pass after the groundbreaking for the facility on October 6, 2006 and a contract was signed with Casavant Frères to build the organ to when the building is dedicated in 2011.

These organs are very complex instruments.  Every valve, every connector, and every wire has to be made expressly for each individual organ, and John Obetz is highly knowledgeable about these instruments and more than qualified to help design one for Kansas City.  From the very inception of the idea nearly two decades ago through every step made thus far, this instrument reflects his vision of the perfect concert organ.

Dr. Obetz was the Director of Music at the Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) Auditorium and later, the Temple in Independence.  When the RLDS constructed the Temple, Dr. Obetz was a key factor in both the design of that organ, and the design of the Temple itself.

Today, Dr. Obetz thinks fondly of the pipe organ he helped design for the Temple.  His experience with the Temple organ gave him insight into the issues involved with creating a grand pipe organ for the future home of the Kansas City Symphony – the Kauffman Center.

David Peironnet: Why should Kansas City have a concert organ?

Dr. Obetz: There is a wealth of orchestra music and concerts, some recently composed, that call for an organ, including the much loved Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony.  Additionally, there are many choral works that call for the organ.  So Kansas Citians will, for the first time, be able to hear this great literature as conceived by the composers.

DP: Do many other cities have pipe organs in concert halls?

Dr. Obetz: When discussions of a new performance hall began in the early 1990s, a group of us approached Julia Irene Kauffman about including a pipe organ in the plans.  At that time Dallas had just opened their new concert hall and received international acclaim as well as enthusiastic audience response for their fabulous organ.  Since then Nashville, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, among others, have installed fine pipe organs in their concert halls.  If Kansas City’s hall is to be among the very best, she acknowledged, we needed a pipe organ.

DP: How did you convince the architects and lead committees that a pipe organ should be included in the design?

Dr. Obetz: I invited them to the Community of Christ Temple in Independence, and played those incredible passages from Saint-Saëns organ symphony.  They were overwhelmed with the sound.  Then we explored the inside of the organ, all three stories of it, and right then they knew our hall had to include a fine pipe organ.

We were fortunate to get a commitment from Julia Irene Kauffman as well as the architects early in the process.  I became involved with the review panel which chose James David Christie, the organist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a music professor at Oberlin College to be the organ consultant for Kansas City, and to develop specifications for the instrument.  Later, that review panel accepted Casavant’s proposal.

We signed the contract with Casavant almost the same day as the groundbreaking for the Kauffman Center in 2006.  If we had not been able to sign the contract then, our organ might not have been finished in time for the opening of the hall in 2011 since Casavant was then in contractual discussions for several other large instruments.

DP: What is unique and important about Kansas City’s pipe organ?

Dr. Obetz: Our organ will be very versatile.  Besides being a very large instrument with over five thousand pipes, its tonal design is shaped by the diverse literature it must play: orchestral, solo, and accompanimental music that spans at least five centuries.  The large number of pipes and thoughtful design will enable an organist to choose the tonal characteristics which are ideal for each piece of music. […] I know that our new organ will inspire those who play it.  I’m equally certain that Kansas Citians will be inspired by the new sounds and experiences that it will bring to our city.

By David Peironnet

Special to KCM

David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.

David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.

This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.

David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.

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