Keeping San Diego Symphony’s Grand Organ in Tune

In Sunday’s (1/5) San Diego Union-Tribune, George Varga writes, “The San Diego Symphony’s 1921 Robert-Morton Theatre Organ will be in the spotlight at the orchestra’s Friday and Saturday concerts, which will feature Weicheng Zhao performing Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, Organ Symphony. This will be the first concert to prominently feature the organ since the symphony’s downtown home, Jacobs Music Center, reopened in September following its $125 million renovation. Organ curator Robert Knight has upgraded the organ and added new pipes for the two concerts. He provided some key facts and details about the historic instrument, which was built in 1921 … The organ originally had 3,000 pipes. It now has 3,410 pipes and even more are being added … The organ originally had 32 ranks of pipes, with approximately 61 pipes per rank. One or two more ranks were added in 1929, and two or three more ranks in the 1960s. An additional eight ranks were added when the organ was overhauled in 2010. Between November and this week, 21 more ranks are being added…. The organ also includes a Chrysoglott, a unique theater organ voice that Knight describes as sounding ‘like a celeste on steroids.’ ”