{"id":55629,"date":"2019-11-18T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/donations-fill-church-with-joyful-noise\/"},"modified":"2019-11-19T14:30:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T23:30:26","slug":"donations-fill-church-with-joyful-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/donations-fill-church-with-joyful-noise\/","title":{"rendered":"Donations fill church with joyful noise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

After more than a decade after Holy Trinity Episcopal Church was rebuilt, the downtown place of worship and event venue finally sounds like its old self.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

An organ that had been at the church since the late ’70s was among the things destroyed in a 2006 fire.<\/a> Services resumed at the rebuilt church in 2009, and a baby grand piano has provided music during services and events.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

In 2017, Tim Fullam donated an organ to the church, and since then the church raised funds with help from Juneau Community Foundation and a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation to purchase speakers the organ needs to work.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

[Watch: Holy Trinity has a new organ<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“It’s great,” said Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Rector Gordon Blue in an interview. “I’m very happy with how it’s come together. That’s a magnificent machine.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"Holy<\/a>

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church’s 2013 Allen Bravura concert organ was played by a visiting organist in its first public concert Friday, Nov. 15,2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Bruce Simonson, who helped bring the project to fruition, said the Rasmuson Foundation grant was for $12,500. The Juneau Community Foundation helped raise an additional $12,500, and the church contributed about $5,o00. While he would not provide a specific figure, Simonson said the organ’s value exceeds five figures.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The organ produces sounds using speakers rather than pipes, and more speakers enable it to more closely approximate a pipe organ, Simonson said. The sounds played over the speakers aren’t synthesized, Simonson said. They’re sampled from organs from Germany, France, England and the U.S.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

When played, the swirling notes are an extremely close approximation of a pipe organ.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t