Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, 114 Soo Ave., Almena, will host a concert at 1:30 p.m. this Sunday, June 9, 2024, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the installation of its handmade Schaefer pipe organ.
Dr. Brooks Whitmore, a native of Dallas, Wis., and a 1989 Barron High School graduate, will play a selection of classical and hymn-based music. Hors d’oeuvres and desserts will be served after the concert in the parish hall.
This Sunday’s concert will mark the second time he’s played the Schaefer organ, Whitmore said during a telephone interview last Wednesday, May 29, from his home in Lander, Wyo., where he has lived since 2021. He works as an elementary school music teacher.
“It was a wedding, and I played it while I was in high school,” he said. “I was pretty nervous about it. I wasn’t used to some of what goes on at a Catholic ceremony.”
That’s about all he remembers about the experience, Whitmore added. Since that time, he’s pursued a three-decade career in music.
Whitmore recently listened to the organ being played during a video clip sent from the church. He liked what he heard.
“They took care of the instrument -- very laudable for them,” he said. “It sounds like it’s in good shape, and that it was in good tune.”
Cumberland resident Audrey Held made the recording. Her great-grandfather, Bernhard (later Bernard) Schaefer, founded the Slinger, Wis.-based company that built the organ for the church 100 years ago. Held worked for the company while it was under the management of her father. The company later went out of business.
After she and her husband, Robert, moved to Cumberland, Held discovered that one of the organs built by her ancestors was still in operation. She and members of the Sacred Heart congregation cooperated to provide information when the News-Shield published a story about the instrument four years ago.
Held agreed to serve on a committee planning the centennial concert.
It was while that work was going on that she remembered having a chance encounter with Whitmore several years ago, while he was an organist at a cathedral in Austin, Tex.
“We were going into the cathedral,” she remembered during a May 26 interview. “My husband, Bob, was wearing a ball cap with the word ‘Cumberland’ on it.”
Whitmore picked up the story three days later.
“I saw them on the steps of the cathedral where I’d been an organist for several years,” he said. “I saw the cap Bob was wearing and I took a chance. I asked them: You wouldn’t happen to be from Cumberland, Wisconsin, would you? I’m from Dallas.”
At first, the Helds thought Whitmore meant he was from Dallas, Tex.
“And then, he said, no, I grew up in Dallas, Wis., and went to Barron High School,” Held said.
Held remembered that meeting when the committee was brainstorming the 100th anniversary concert.
“We wanted someone to play the organ,” she said. “Ideally, it would be nice to get someone of prominence. And it just came to me -- I thought of (Whitmore). I thought it was a long shot, but he was from the area, and, maybe, he might want to come and visit family.”
An online search led Held to Whitmore at Lander, Wyo., and she sent him an email about the concert.
“He said yes right away,” she added.
With a doctorate in music from the University of Texas at Austin and many years of church organ work, Whitmore has the experience that the committee hoped to bring to Almena.
“Every pipe organ -- especially one like this -- is quite different,” he said. “It’s not like a piano, which is manufactured in a much more uniform way. Each organ is built for its space, economic resources, taste, and aesthetics.”
Well-constructed church organs do have something in common, Whitmore added.
“They produce a wide range of sound, from the lowest register to some of the very highest pitches that the human ear can hear.”
During the final days before the concert, members of the Sacred Heart congregation are thinking about what the organ means to them.
Cindy Effertz Williams remembered the awe and wonder she felt as a child when her mother, Joyce, a member of the church choir, took her to the loft in the back of the church.
“I cherish being part of our choir family to this day, as is my daughter and granddaughter,” she said. “When Mom was alive, we were four generations of Effertz women in the choir.”
Kathy Rockow, who also serves as an occasional organist at the church, talked about the emotions she feels while the organ plays.
“The quiet tones evoke a sense of meditation and reverence (and) the louder tones and deep bass tones instantly move the congregation to a sense of glory and praise,” she said.
Parishioner Anita Tomczik has a historic connection to the organ.
“When the organ was ordered, pledges were taken to help pay for it,” she said. But when it was delivered and payment was due, “the economy was so bad most of the parishioners couldn’t fulfill their pledge. So, my great-grandparents, Ignatz and Bertha Stoeberl, paid for most of (it).
“I have been a lifelong member of Sacred Heart Church,” Tomczik added.
