Feeling History in the Grooves: Eastman Students Bring Baroque Organ Music to Life

By Jonathan Heath

 

Walking through the Memorial Art Gallery’s (MAG) Fountain Court, you might feel as if you’ve stepped inside a small Italian village church. A vaulted ceiling soars above, while rows of arched clerestory windows filter shafts of sunlight onto the marble floor below. Oil paintings from the European Baroque period (1600–1750)—portraits, landscapes, and religious scenes—line the walls, interspersed with wood and bronze sculptures. At the room’s center, a replica Renaissance-style fountain anchors the space, needing only a gentle trickle of water to complete the illusion.

As the museum’s largest hall, the Fountain Court is the ideal setting for a historic instrument of such grandiose design and expressive sound that it can’t be heard anywhere else for thousands of miles: the Eastman Italian Baroque Organ. “We all like to say, it looks like it was born there,” says David Higgs, professor of organ and chair of the Organ, Sacred Music, and Historical Keyboards Department at the Eastman School of Music. “It looks so natural. Everything about it is right—the size and shape fit the room perfectly.”

The only one of its kind in North America, the organ stands 22 feet tall and contains nearly 600 pipes (some up to 16 feet tall, others smaller than a pencil). Although a few pipes date as far back as 1670, the instrument is believed to have been assembled in its current case in central Italy around 1770. Its lavishly carved wooden façade, divided into three pipe fields, reflects a common design of the period. Ten-foot-high floral paintings decorate the side panels, and the crowning ornament atop the organ features a rare depiction of St. Andrew.

The documented history of the organ begins in 1979, when German organ builder Gerald Woehl discovered it in an antique shop in Florence, Italy. After purchasing the instrument, Woehl had it dismantled and placed in storage, where it remained for more than twenty years. In 2001, during a visit to Eastman’s organ department, Woehl also toured the Fountain Court—and inspiration struck. A few months later, a contract was signed transferring ownership of the organ to Eastman following its restoration by Woehl. Installation at its new home began in the summer of 2005.

In the hall’s acoustically rich environment, the organ offers Baroque music enthusiasts—and casual museumgoers alike—a rare chance to hear authentic performances of Italian organ music composed nearly three centuries ago. With its well-preserved pipes crafted to render the vocal and instrumental sonorities of its time, the organ becomes a “living recording.”

Going for Baroque, a weekly series of mini recitals held each Sunday at 1:30 and 3:00 p.m., brings the instrument triumphantly to life. The performances—free with gallery admission—feature a mix of Eastman students and professional musicians. Each program typically includes four or five short works, ranging from two to ten minutes in length.

“Because organs were typically found in churches, a lot of the music we play was written for use in the Italian Mass,” says Higgs. “But we also have music that was written purely for the art, or for a composer to demonstrate their skill.” Some contemporary composers continue to write specifically for Italian Baroque organs, drawn to their distinct qualities—even if those qualities pose certain challenges. One of the most striking features is the instrument’s tuning. “Our organ is tuned in something called mean tone,” Higgs explains, “which is different from the way a piano or modern organ is tuned.” Mean-tone temperament, a tuning system used for centuries, creates a tonal landscape in which some keys sound more in tune than they would on modern instruments, while others sound noticeably more dissonant. This characteristic isn’t a flaw—it’s a creative opportunity. “Composers today find this fascinating, because it’s so unusual to them—and they can write music to exploit this,” Higgs continues. “When they write about a particularly painful emotion, for example, they have a chord played in the out-of-tune range of the organ. Suddenly, something that represents pain or death sounds horrible to the listener, and the emotion can be understood.”

As one of America’s leading concert organists and a member of Eastman’s faculty since 1992, Higgs is himself uniquely attuned to the specifics of the Eastman organ. He still recalls the first time he sat down to play it. “There was frisson. I had goosebumps. I placed my fingers, and they fell into these grooves where all these fingers had been for so many years before me. It was quite amazing.” He understands the singular nature of the experience for students as well—there’s nowhere else in North America quite like it, making Eastman quite an attractive prospect for young organists. “They get to play an instrument and have the same tactile experience and aural sense that players and composers would have had 250 years ago or so,” he says. “Especially in that room, because the acoustic is so good and so realistic that you can be transported somewhere else entirely.”

Benjamin Kjell, a doctoral student in organ performance and literature at Eastman, agrees. “As students at Eastman, we are very lucky to have access to a diverse selection of beautiful instruments, but the Italian organ is my personal favorite,” he says.

“Being able to play authentic historical instruments as a student is very valuable,” Kjell continues. “The organ repertoire spans music written for a wide range of instruments, and it’s hard to fully understand a piece if it’s a bad match with the instrument you’re playing. Most of the time, there must be some sort of compromise. But with an instrument like the Italian organ, you can get very close to the sounds that the composers themselves would have conceived their pieces for—at least in this niche of music. It is a privilege to have that possibility.”

A graduate of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Kjell has been playing organ and piano for over a decade. His time at Eastman has allowed him to further develop a deep sensitivity to the nuances of the Italian Baroque organ and its unmistakable voice—particularly its distinctive set of stops.

An organ stop is the mechanism that controls whether pressurized air flows to a particular set of pipes. The term comes from the fact that these sounds can be “stopped” or activated at will: each stop can be turned on (allowing air through) or off (blocking it), giving the organist the ability to shape the instrument’s sound and volume. Each combination of stops produces a different tonal effect. Fun fact: the phrase “pull out all the stops” refers to engaging all the organ’s voices at once—though it has since taken on a broader, metaphorical meaning.

“With a relatively small number of stops, the sound ranges from soft and gentle to brilliant and exciting, but it’s always colorful,” Kjell says. “Even just the Principale [a foundational stop, often considered the backbone of the organ’s sound] has a complex timbre that’s interesting to listen to. It’s gentle but present, and it combines wonderfully with the other stops. Those are the kinds of instruments that speak to me the most: where the individual sounds are beautiful on their own but also blend well together and combine into a satisfying ensemble.”

Kjell and his fellow organ students will return to the MAG following the start of the 2025-2026 academic year. “I enjoy playing the Italian organ at the museum a lot. Mostly, I enjoy it simply because the sounds are so beautiful,” he says. “But there’s also an excitement in playing on keys that you know have been played on for hundreds of years—and you can really tell they have in this case! Performing on the Italian organ has given me some of the best moments of my studies here.”

For the Memorial Art Gallery, the organ is more than a visual centerpiece or historical curiosity—it’s a living instrument, central to one of the museum’s most enduring programs. Hosting Eastman students each week has become a cornerstone of that experience.

“The weekly Going for Baroque concerts, performed by advanced Eastman graduate students, present the rare opportunity for visitors not only to hear the Baroque organ played, but to learn about its history and logistics,” says Nancy Norwood, the museum’s curator of European art. “It is more than a concert: the performers spend time showing the audience the bellows, explaining the pipes, discussing the history of the organ and related music, and answering questions. It is one of the most popular weekend offerings at MAG, and a terrific ongoing collaboration between the two primary artistic divisions of the University of Rochester.”

Now celebrating its 20th anniversary at the MAG, the Eastman Italian Baroque Organ remains a vital presence for students, instrumentalists, singers, visiting scholars, organ restorers, museum guests, and all those drawn to its elegant, intimate voice. It lives and breathes in the sunlit court, rooted in centuries of musical tradition—too large to move, too rare to replace, and exactly where it belongs.

Whether you’ve visited the Memorial Art Gallery recently or not, Going for Baroque is well worth the return. Join Professor David Higgs, Benjamin Kjell, and other talented organists each Sunday at 1:30 and 3:00 p.m. for a live encounter with a rare musical treasure—an experience as rich as the art that surrounds it. Free with museum admission, each concert offers something new: a chance to listen, to learn, and to be transported by the sound of history, still echoing in the Fountain Court.

Additionally, on the third Thursday of each month from October through May, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., Eastman and the Memorial Art Gallery present varied concert programs by faculty and guest artists on the Italian Baroque Organ. These Third Thursday Concerts will continue the organ’s 20th-anniversary celebrations with performances by a number of Eastman alumni, as well as former and current faculty members.

Come hear what happens when Eastman pulls out all the stops!