Sigma Alpha Iota

oRGANISTS AT WORK Pipe Organ is 'King of Instruments' P OPs FOR KIDs, the Children's Pipe Organ Project of the Wichita (Kans.) Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), has worked since 1991 to educate young people about the mysteries, the majesty, and the music of the pipe organ. Initially sponsoring pipe organ demonstrations for grade-school classes and then adding annual children's concerts, the program enjoyed great local success -- its demonstrations and recitals in one early season reaching nearly 1,300 children. Later, the program developed a classroom teaching unit for local public schools, with specialized teaching materials and a POPs for KIDs video. College music-appreciation classes began to request organ demos, and other chapters used POPs elements in their own programs. Over the years, a number of workshops have also been taken to AGO regional conventions. Recently, as the Wichita Chapter developed its "Sunflower Organ Initiative" in Kansas, it began sponsoring POPs-style pipeorgan demonstrations in other municipalities around the state, featuring organ crawls called "Family Pipe Organ Tours." As POPs moves into its 21st year, Wichita Chapter member Irene Shaw, [an SAI Iota Gamma initiate and member of the Wichita Alumnae Chapter] who had guided the program since its beginning, was looking to the needs of the future. Initiated in 1950, Irene has demonstrated her love of music and leadership qualities through the years. She is a recipient of the Diamond Sword, Alumnae Leadership Award, and SAI is proud of her involvement in the AGO. "It has been an exciting journey for my husband and me to develop this idea since its inception," Shaw said. "[But now] we are thrust into an era of new technologies ... [ones] that challenge us to ... reach out to students of all ages more effectively than ever before." Early in 2012, Shaw gathered a small group of AGO members and Wichita public-school music teachers — persons knowledgeable about the pipe organ, about POPs for KIDs, and about computers, the Internet, and new software for computer-assisted learning. Music teachers Lindsey Blurton, Don Gray, Laura Hirsch, and Lisa Neas, who were already using some of the new software, provided major assistance. They spent many hours browsing the Internet to put together a basic unit and more hours dealing with changes suggested by the committee. Then 10 PAN PIPESSUMMER 2013 sai-national.org Glen Chambers and Wichita Alumnae Chapter member Irene Shaw with new portable display case of pipe organ materials. pilots of the program were introduced to the Wichita Chapter, to music teachers in the local schools, and to a statewide convention of the Teaching Parents Association. Some good suggestions came from these forums: 1. A new online teaching program, "The Pipe Organ — King of Instruments," is now available in every Wichita publicschool classroom. (Our thanks go to Holly Taylor, Vocal Curriculum Coach, for her help disseminating it to all the schools.) We are pleased to introduce it to the general public as well, and it is now available on the POPs for KIDsWeb site. The program can be accessed with new SMART Board technology for classrooms so equipped, or as a simple PDF file for use on any computer. It gives a thorough description of how the pipe organ works and how it is built, using links from an index page. Clicking on a link brings one to a YouTube video or an illustration that serves as teaching material to illustrate the topic. In our search, the wealth of available materials was gratifying; and we have allowed some redundancies in this part of the teaching unit, so that teachers and students may pick and choose what works best for them and interests them most. The youngster who absorbs it completely may well want to become an organbuilder! 2. A second feature of the unit, also given online, is the "Principal Composers Supplement." This element is a large chronological file discussing organ music and organ composers of the various eras, with musical examples by way of aural and visual illustration. Wichita Chapter Dean Carrol Hassman, compiled the file, springboarding from an idea and the initial work of teacher Laura Hirsch, and it quickly became more extended than her original. Here again, the wide scope of the file allows users to browse, pick, and choose whatever is useful for them, and we expect that organ enthusiasts of all ages may find the thumbnail biographies and musical examples of interest. Our thanks must go to the many performers, producers, and organbuilders who have made all the linked materials available on their own Web sites or in their postings to YouTube. Additional credit for the biographical listings of the "Principal Composers" file must also go to Wikipedia contributors for the articles our file quotes, summarizes, links, and references. 3. Finally, acknowledging that the acoustics of the organ and its way of building sound are rooted in the principles and partials of music theory, the Web site also includes a page of links to selected online programs of music theory study.

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