Jack Mitchener to Peachtree Road United Methodist Church

John Eargle died May 9 at his home in Hollywood Hills, California, at the age of 76. An award-winning audio engineer, his long career included work for a number of record labels and for JBL and Harman International Industries. An organist before he became a recording engineer, Eargle received the BMus from the Eastman School of Music and the MMus from the University of Michigan. His teachers included Marilyn Mason and Catharine Crozier.
Eargle was born on January 6, 1931, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to his music degrees, he also earned degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Texas and Cooper Union, and then became a recording engineer, first for RCA and then for Mercury. In 1957 he headed the Klipschtape division of Klipsch and Associates and performed two recitals on the Aeolian-Skinner instruments in Longview and Kilgore, Texas, which were issued as recordings by the company.
John Eargle joined JBL as a consultant in 1976, and shortly thereafter became vice president of product development. In the early 1980s he returned to a consulting role with the title senior director, product development and application, the position he held for the rest of his life. Eargle had just completed the book The JBL Story: 60 Years of Audio Innovation and had previously co-authored JBL Audio Engineering for Sound Reinforcement, which are among ten books on audio, loudspeakers, microphones and recording that he had authored.
He was also director of recording for Delos International and engineered and produced many organ recordings, including releases by David Britton, Catharine Crozier, Michael Farris, David Higgs, Robert Noehren, Todd Wilson, and others. A member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), he had engineered and/or produced over 275 compact discs. He was at the forefront of the development of multi-channel surround sound. In 2001 he was awarded the Grammy for Best-Engineered Album, Classical for Dvorák: Requiem, op. 89; Symphony No. 9, op. 95.
Eargle had a deep commitment to education, presenting at many forums as a guest lecturer and serving on numerous panels and committees. He taught at the Aspen Audio Recording Institute for more than 20 years, in concert with JBL and Harman support of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and was a member of their corporate board.

Pierce Allen Getz died March 30 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Born in 1929 in Denver, Pennsylvania, he earned a BS degree in music education from Lebanon Valley College, an MSM from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and the DMA from the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Getz did further organ study in the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, and at the North German Organ Academy, and also studied historical organs in Europe. A professor of music at Lebanon Valley College for 31 years, he served Market Square Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg as organist and director of music from 1987 to the present; his previous positions included serving Annville United Methodist Church for 21 years. He founded the Alumni Chorale of Lebanon Valley College in 1978 and served as its director until his death. Getz received numerous awards and honors, including the 2003 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Lebanon Valley College and the 2004 American Choral Directors Association of Pennsylvania’s Elaine Brown Award. Pierce Getz is survived by his wife of nearly 55 years, Gene Shelley Getz, a daughter and son, and two grandsons. A memorial service was held at Market Square Presbyterian Church, to which memorial contributions may be made to the Music Program, Market Square Presbyterian Church, 20 S. Second St., Harrisburg, PA 17101.

Erna Kopitz Heiller died February 4 in Vienna at the age of 85. The wife of Anton Heiller, she was an artist in her own right and became widely known as a harpsichordist; her recordings that she made with her husband Anton of the Soler Concertos for Two Keyboards and the Bach harpsichord concertos were well known. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna during the years preceding and including World War II, following which she was part of the revival of music by composers whose music had been banned by the Nazis. She specialized in the music of Hindemith, Mendelssohn, Martin, Poulenc, and Schoenberg. Erna Heiller is survived by a daughter, a son, and five grandchildren.

Evelyn Wall Robbins died in Atlanta on February 5. Born in Lake City, South Carolina, Mrs. Robbins earned a music degree from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, and a graduate degree from the Juilliard School. She was a student of Clarence Dickinson for 15 years, and shared a lifelong friendship with him. During her studies with Dickinson, she served as assistant organist at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. In 1950 she married Homer Erwin Robbins Jr. at the Riverside Church; Virgil Fox was the organist.
Mrs. Robbins was an organist-choirmaster for many churches in Georgia, including First Presbyterian Church in Marietta, Druid Hills United Methodist Church in Decatur, and St. James Methodist Church and Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta, and also served Salem United Church of Christ in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she also taught organ and directed the chapel choir at Cedar Crest College. She was an active member of Choristers Guild and the American Guild of Organists, serving twice as dean of the Lehigh Valley chapter. Services were held at Belvedere United Methodist Church in Atlanta on February 8. Donations may be made to the Clarence Dickinson Society.

Victor Gonzalez/Robert Martin, 

Paris, France

Mercer University, 

Macon, Georgia

Mercer University has acquired and has dedicated a new organ for the organ teaching studio in McCorkle Hall, Townsend School of Music. The instrument, the Giuseppe Englert Memorial Organ, was originally built by Victor Gonzalez in 1953 in Paris. Its home for 59 years was the salon in the apartment on the Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg (in full view of the impressive gold-leaf dome of Les Invalides, where one finds the tomb of Napoléon) of Giuseppe Englert and his wife, Jacqueline Englert-Marchal, the daughter of celebrated blind French organist André Marchal. Giuseppe Englert, a former student of Marchal, spent his career as a university professor and composer of electronic music. 

Upon the death in April 2012 of Mme Englert-Marchal, the Gonzalez organ was offered as a gift to Mercer University by Michel Snethlage, the nephew of Jacqueline and Giuseppe Englert. The new organ professor at Mercer, Jack Mitchener, was a friend of Jacqueline Englert and Michel Snethlage and was delighted to accept the organ so that his students might benefit from it. The instrument arrived in Macon, Georgia, in October 2012 and French organ builder Robert Martin spent several weeks in November and December rebuilding the organ in its new home. Ronald Gibson, Halbert Gober, and Bud Taylor participated in various aspects of the reconstruction as well. Mercer organ majors also took part in the process of rebuilding the organ, including countless hours spent unpacking innumerable parts of the instrument, connecting the stop and key action, and cleaning and installing pipes. 

There was a weekend celebration, April 10–12, 2013, to inaugurate the organ. The festivities included a dedication ceremony and inaugural concert featuring Jack Mitchener as well as guest organists Marie-Antoinette (“Maritouca”) Vernières (a good friend of the Englerts who was the last person to play the organ in Paris and the first to play it in its new home at Mercer), Ralph Tilden (a former student of André Marchal and good friend of the Englerts), Guillaume Gionta from Marseille, France, and Robert Martin (the organ builder and also Organist of the Cathedral in Marseille). The inaugural events also included a lecture on Cavaillé-Coll by Robert Martin and an “Open House” concert featuring Mercer organ students and others from the community.

The instrument is a fine example of neo-classical organ building from the shop of Victor Gonzalez. It has fifteen independent stops and 18 ranks. Both manual divisions (Grand Orgue and Récit) are under expression; the Montre 8 is in the façade, the Pedal Soubasse 16, Bourdon 8, and Flute 4 are exposed as is the Régale rank. The latter was added to the organ several years after the original installation in Paris and is on an off-set electric action chest. The organ otherwise has mechanical key and stop action, although the stops knobs turn allowing push-down combination pedals to activate whichever stops have been set. The organ has a wide dynamic range, sweet and gentle when the boxes are closed and full and robust when open. However, the sound is never terribly loud. It is appropriately voiced for a teaching studio and is a successful instrument for all of the repertoire. The manual compass is 61 notes while the pedal is 32 notes. 

—Jack Mitchener