At age 106, St. Luke’s organ is still a treasure

The organ’s like new, and the organist is new, at Saint Luke’s

Posted

Parishioners at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church, in Sea Cliff, are likely more attuned to music these days.
The organ in the small church on Glen Avenue has undergone major renovations. And most recently, Saint Luke’s hired Fred Backhaus as its new organist.
Saint Luke’s is one of the oldest churches in Sea Cliff, its congregation having been established in 1889, only six years after the village was founded. By 1894 the church had been built, and 22 years later, the organ was installed. It has been a fixture in the building ever since.
The organ was built in 1916 by the Midmer Organ Company, later the Midmer-Losh Organ Company, a Merrick-based organ producer founded in 1860. The company is now defunct, but before it closed, it built the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium organ in Atlantic City, which remains the largest pipe organ in the world.
While the scale of the work at Saint Luke’s was not quite as grand as that at Boardwalk Hall, the organ at St. Luke’s has stood the test of time. For generations, it provided the hauntingly beautiful sounds so unique to organ music to the parishioners in Sea Cliff.

The Rev. Jesse Lebus, a priest at Saint Luke’s since 2019, said the organ not only provides ambience and accompaniment for the choir, it also is an important part of Episcopal history and service.
“Essentially the entire musical tradition of the Episcopal Church is centered around choral singing and accompaniment by an organ, so it’s really an important part of our heritage,” Lebus said. “It’s one of the pillars on which the Sunday service is set, you know, and without it, it just wouldn’t be the same.”
The work on the organ began in March, under the supervision of Sea Cliff resident Gerald Anders, who worked for over 30 years as an organist and choir director at numerous churches. Anders served briefly as the organist and choir director at Saint Luke’s for two months in 2014, filling in during Advent and the holidays because, as he said, “No church should be without music during Christmas.”
Anders and his husband, Bruce Castellano, encouraged Lebus to invest in expanding the organ earlier this year, partly to attract high quality organists and more parishioners, but also to give such an old and historic instrument the musical range and depth that it deserves.
According to Anders, many older organs have been mechanized so that they can be played using touch-screen technology. Saint Luke’s Church leaders and members pushed against it in the past saving money in terms of technical repairs while preserving the unique and original sound of the piece.
“This organ is 108 years old. It’s in really good shape because the church over the years has really been good about maintaining it and keeping it upgraded,” Anders said. “If they had gone down the electronic route, they would have had to spend $200,000 or $300,000 twice, since every 20 years or so you have to replace an electronic organ.”
Saint Luke’s hired the Peragallo Pipe Organ Company, a fourth-generation family company based in Paterson, New Jersey. The expansion of the organ has been ongoing since March. The church continues to use it during services every Sunday and it is due to be finished by the end of September. A blessing and performance of the organ is set for Nov. 2.
An organ is nothing without its organist. Backhaus has stepped in out of semi-retirement to fill the role for the next year. Backhaus earned a degree in organ performance at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, as well as a master’s from the Eastman School of Music in upstate Rochester.
Backhaus has been a full-time church organist and choir director since 1978, and has worked at numerous churches throughout the tristate area, including Christ Church in Oyster Bay, where he worked for 16 years. Backhaus said he was excited to play such a historic instrument, and to do so in a community like Sea Cliff.
“I’ve had a full career as a church organist and choir trainer,” Backhaus said. “This is such a lovely instrument, and I’m really enjoying, you know, Sea Cliff and the chance to keep playing.”