Auburn Christian Music - ChristianMusic.com
Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church - Auburn, New York
St. Mary's choir has been a part of St. Mary’s for more than half a century. Our choirs have made several recordings of various concerts and holidays have been made over the years. Tapes and CD’s of both are available at the church office.
Few churches can boast of housing two organs the caliber of those at St. Mary’s. The sanctuary organ was built about 1884 by Garret House of Buffalo for the first Masonic Temple building in Ithaca. When that building was torn down around 1926 and replaced by the present Temple, the Garret House organ was moved to the converted house which served as the Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) lodge. Organ builder Dick Strauss obtained the organ when the Odd Fellows disbanded, and it served as a “fill in” instrument at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ithaca during construction of that parish’s present organ in 1966-67. The Garret House Organ has been extensively rebuilt, and was installed temporarily at one or two other locations before coming to St. Mary’s in 1979. The gallery organ was built by the Barckhoff Organ Company in 1892. (The gallery organ has a “twin sister” at St. Joseph Church in Lancaster, PA, which has recently been restored, and is also an astounding instrument.) Both the gallery organ and the sanctuary organ were restored by A. Richard Strauss of Ithaca when the Garret Organ was moved to St. Mary’s. A concert of music performed on both organs (Organa Dupla) is available on CD from the parish office.Besides the two organs at St. Mary’s, the choir has at one time or another been accompanied by enough musicians on other instruments to assemble nearly an entire orchestra. Several concerts and choir festivals have been accompanied by members of the Auburn Chamber Orchestra. In addition, various choir members are pressed into service now and then, to add bells, drums, triangles and recorders. Undoubtedly the most unusual instrumental performance was a Native American piece which was accompanied by Bob Stabile-on an ordinary carpenter’s saw.
If your in our area this Sunday, stop in to listen to some of the beautiful music at St. Mary's.
Visit ... stmaryauburn.org
Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church
15 Clark Street
Auburn, New York 13021
Phone: 315-252-9545
