Jan Kraybill named organ conservator for the Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ in Kansas City

The inaugural recital weekend March 10–11, 2012 for Casavant Opus 3875 featured James David Christie performing an eighty-minute recital 

David C. Pickering is Assistant Professor of Music at Kansas State University and organist at First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, Kansas. He is an active recitalist, having performed throughout the United States and Canada. Pickering’s three recordings feature the organ music of American composers Daniel Gawthrop, Alice Jordan, and Leroy Robertson. He has also authored articles on these composers that have appeared in The American Organist and The Diapason. His degrees in organ performance (DMA, MM, BM) are from the University of Kansas and Brigham Young University.

The opening of Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in September 2011 ended a sixteen-year search for a new location to house three of the region’s leading performing arts organizations—the Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Civic leader and philanthropist Muriel McBrien Kauffman first articulated the vision of the Kauffman Center in the mid-1990s. After her death, daughter Julia Irene Kauffman worked to bring this vision to reality. Designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, whose work encompasses a wide variety of structures including airports, government buildings, libraries, museums, and residences, the Kauffman Center boasts two major performance spaces—the 1,800-seat proscenium-style Muriel Kauffman Theatre, home to the ballet and opera, and the 1,600-seat Helzberg Hall, which hosts a variety of local, regional, national, and international artists and performance groups, in addition to serving as the home of the Kansas City Symphony. Ground-breaking ceremonies for the Kauffman Center were held October 6, 2006, and the grand opening weekend of the Kauffman Center was held about five years later on September 16–17, 2011, capped off by a free public open house September 18, which drew an astonishing 55,000 people during a six-hour period.  

As discussions for the Kauffman Center were initiated in the 1990s, John Obetz, Principal Organist at the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ) in Independence, Missouri, and other area organists approached Julia Kauffman about the idea of including a pipe organ in the plans for a new concert hall. Obetz invited the people involved with the Kauffman Center’s planning to the Community of Christ Temple in nearby Independence, home to what was then a new organ by Casavant Frères Opus 3700 (1993), where he played sections from the Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, op. 78, by Camille Saint-Saëns. A tour of the organ for committee members followed, and the seeds for the new concert hall organ were sown. 

As an organ committee was formed and various organ builders considered, the committee traveled once again to the Community of Christ Temple to hear Casavant Opus 3700, demonstrated by Obetz’s successor Jan Kraybill. This eventually led the committee to select the Casavant firm to design and construct the organ for the Kauffman Center—it would be the Kansas City metropolitan area’s second large Casavant organ. James David Christie, Professor of Music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and organist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was hired to serve as the organ consultant for this new instrument, which has since been named the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ.

The inaugural recital weekend March 10–11, 2012 featured James David Christie performing an eighty-minute recital containing a varied selection of music, which included several compositions that are largely unknown to organists. Tickets for the inaugural recital sold out quickly, to the surprise and delight of many. In response to the demand for tickets, the Kauffman Center staff and Mr. Christie generously offered to provide a second recital scheduled for the following evening—which also sold out. Christie’s decision to perform two nights in a row was particularly dramatic, given the scope and difficulty of the program he presented. I attended the second performance (March 11) and was situated in the Mezzanine Left section of the hall, one level up from the main floor seating. The Julia Irene Kauffman Organ is prominently featured at the front of the Helzberg Hall, a beautiful facility awash with wood and soothing blue colors. The organ’s façade features both wooden and metal reed, principal, and string pipes angled forward and sideways. A mesh screen separates the visible façade from the other organ pipes.  

The recital opened with remarks of welcome from Jane Chu, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Kauffman Center, Julia Irene Kauffman, James David Christie, and Casavant owner Bertin Nadeau, who presented a token organ pipe to Ms. Kauffman on behalf of the company. Since the organ employs mechanical action and the console is connected directly to the instrument, closed-circuit cameras were employed so that the audience could view Christie’s pedal and manual movements on two huge screens that were posted on the stage floor. Whenever he played a pedal part that was particularly interesting for the audience to see, a small additional screen linked to a camera that was focused on Christie’s feet was displayed at the corner of each screen, thus providing further enjoyment and interest to everyone. The quality of the projected image was positively superb.  

The first half of Christie’s program, which consisted of forty minutes of music, was devoted almost solely to music of France, Germany, and Italy written during the Baroque period. Christie opened the program with Louis Mar-chand’s well-known Dialogue from his Troisième Livre, showcasing the organ’s fiery Grand jeu, the mellow 16′, 8′ and 4′ fonds d’orgue, a breathy Flûte harmonique from the Récit division, the Grand Choeur’s Cornet decomposeé and the Positif Cromorne. Those in the audience who were anxiously anticipating the entrance of the Pédale division’s 32′ Contre-Bombarde did not have to wait long—Christie engaged this stop for the final two measures, revealing a sound that was surprisingly smooth and refined. Christie’s beautifully nuanced, yet dramatic playing showed a thorough mastery of the French Classical style, which lent a magisterial air to the opening of the program that was extremely fitting.  

Dieterich Buxtehude’s Passacaglia in D Minor, BuxWV 161, followed, demonstrating the Grand Orgue’s refined 8′ Montre and the uncoupled plena of the Positif and Grand Orgue divisions, the latter accompanied by the Pédale’s principal plenum colored by the division’s smooth 16′ Basson. Christie built the organ’s registration to climax with the Pédale division’s 32′ Montre, which provided a firm underpinning to the composition’s conclusion. The next two works, Rondò in G Major by Giuseppe Gherardeschi and Ballo della Battaglia by Bernardo Storace, were unfamiliar to almost everyone. Christie charmed the audience by adding the Rossignol in the Rondò while the Storace dialogued the organ’s principal and reed choruses.

One of the program’s most sublime moments was Christie’s performance of Johann Bernhard Bach’s Ciaconna in B-flat Major, an attractive work of about ten minutes’ duration that allows the organist to explore an instrument’s varied stops and choruses. Christie both opened and closed this composition with the arresting 8′ Cor de Nuit from the Récit division. Other solo flute stops featured included the Grand Orgue and Positif 8′ Bourdons, the faint but quaint Positif 16′ Quintaton and that same division’s delightful 1′ Piccolo, a stop not often found on organs even of this size. The Positif 16′ Clarinette, a delicate string and celeste, and the Clochettes accompanied by the Positif 4′ Flûte douce each made brief appearances. Christie imbued this work with a mesmerizing dance-like spirit that demonstrated his informed musicianship and technical finesse.  

The program’s first half concluded with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Christie dialogued the toccata’s opening statements on the Grand Orgue and Positif divisions, whose notes were immediately humbled into silence by the thundering pedal point that followed. He effectively dialogued the fugue’s middle section episodic material by ascending all four manuals in stair-step fashion, creating both an aural soundscape and visual interest for the audience. Christie unleashed the organ’s full resources for the final few measures of the fugue, creating a drama and excitement that could have engaged even the most casual listener.

Christie conveyed his love of Baroque-era music superbly by combining a thorough understanding of the performance practice traditions of different countries within this era, a freedom and spontaneity uninhibited by technical showmanship, and a warmth and sensitivity that is often missing in performance of this era’s music. His use of the organ combined informed scholarship, which those in the profession appreciated, with the ability to show a wide range of the organ’s different sounds that were obviously appreciated by the enthusiastic audience. The character and voicing of the plena and stops demonstrated in this half of the program was some of the finest this reviewer has heard from Casavant—so much so that this reviewer wishes that the organ were more present in the hall. Whether the need of greater presence is due to the full house that yielded a drier acoustic than that in which the organ was voiced, the need for more manual coupling, the organ’s dependence on higher-pressure stops to effectively convey forte and fortissimo dynamic levels, or the general need for increased wind pressures are issues that will no doubt be analyzed and hopefully rectified with more study and the passage of time. Likewise, there is much anticipation over how the instrument will perform with a full orchestra in the hall.

The program’s second half comprised forty additional minutes of music featuring primarily works of French composers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and a work by Christie himself, composed in the French idiom in the early years of the twenty-first century. I believe that the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ finally found its voice with the opening chords of Guy Ropartz’s Sortie (from his Six pièces), and it was immediately obvious that while the organ can play earlier literature competently, it is music of the French symphonic style in which this instrument feels truly at home. The organ sounded more present in this work due to the presence of the Grand Choeur division’s hooded reeds, which in this reviewer’s opinion must be engaged for the organ’s presence to adequately fill the hall. The organ chamber’s lights were turned on for this piece’s entirety to clever effect, so that the audience could have an excellent view of its pipes and expressive division shutter movements that are located behind the mesh screen. The dynamic volume of the organ’s expressive divisions increased the most when the shutters were opened the first third to half way. Unfortunately, the remaining two-thirds to half of the distance that the shutters moved produced no further dynamic contrast and the movement of some shutters was slightly spasmodic and not completely smooth. Surely, this small post-installation issue will be attended to in the coming months.

Ermend Bonnal’s La vallée du Béhorléguy, au matin from his Paysages euskariens evoked a flood of soft and meditative flute and string sounds; the Pédale 32′ Soubasse provided just the right touch as the work drew to an introspective close. Christie gave an impassioned performance of Jehan Alain’s most famous composition, Litanies, creating truly visceral excitement as he played the work’s final two pages—some of the most difficult in the organ literature. The fervent outpouring of the soul described by Alain on the work’s opening page was tangibly felt. Christie, in turn, delivered the most heartfelt playing of the evening in his own Elégie, a work composed in 2006 and dedicated to his former teachers: Sister Dolorette Recla, FSPA, and Jean Langlais. A plaintive solo flute permeates the work’s opening, and Christie created a truly ethereal effervescence by coupling many of the organ’s string and celeste stops together; the work eventually died into oblivion. The effect was magical. Christie concluded the program with the Final of Alexandre Guilmant’s Sonata No. 1 in D Minor—a piece he frequently performs. However, as was evident in this performance, he never seems to tire of it—his technical prowess was impressive and he yielded an overall exhilarating effect. The audience gave Christie a well-deserved standing ovation, and he responded with an encore—the second movement from the Guilmant Sonata (Pastorale). This piece allowed Christie to demonstrate stops he had not yet featured—the Récit Voix humaine, which beautifully conveyed the French mystical sentiment often associated with this stop. This aura was further heightened by the softly rumbling pedal accompaniment provided by the 32′ Soubasse and other soft pedal stops. The Grand Choeur Cor Anglais, which had not yet been featured in the program, dialogued nicely with the Récit division’s Hautbois with the return of the main theme in the composition’s final section. When all was said and done, the whole program clocked in right at two hours, the audience having been fed a varied feast of music from several countries and historical eras.  

Although the organ sounded more present in the hall during the second half, I still wished for more presence in the room. From where I was sitting in the hall, the sound of completely full organ adequately filled the hall, but even more sound would not have been an unwelcome guest. While the designated star of the evening’s performance was the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ, organist James David Christie deserves equal recognition for the knuckle-busting program he dispatched with such élan, especially considering that he played this recital two times in two days for sold-out audiences. Christie’s performances on the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ represent only one facet of the organ’s mission. The public will experience how this organ functions as both an orchestra member and a solo instrument with orchestra in its future performances with the Kansas City Symphony. 

The benefits that the classical music scene in Kansas City has received from the construction of the Kauffman Center have been immediate and tangible. Kudos are especially in order to Julia Irene Kauffman for her generosity and to John Obetz and the organ committee who lobbied for the organ’s inclusion in Helzberg Hall. The building of any new organ gives organists everywhere cause for celebration; the appearance of the Julia Irene Kauffman Organ is no exception. I have high hopes that Christie’s recital represents the dawning of a new chapter for the pipe organ in the Kansas City music scene that will inspire performers and audiences for years to come. n

Jan Kraybill, DMA, FAGO, is principal organist for the Dome and Spire Organ Foundation, an affiliate organization of Community of Christ headquarters in Independence, Missouri, and organ conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City. Visit www.jankraybill.com for further information.

My dad led a big, bold, beautiful life. 

So Peter Obetz said as he eulogized his father, John Obetz—organist, teacher, mentor, family man, and friend to so many, who passed from this life on February 12, 2015, at the age of 81. 

John Wesley Obetz was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Samuel and Hazel Obetz; he and his siblings were raised in the Chicago area. Samuel was a pastor, and John’s early experiences as a musician were in his father’s church. John went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University and a doctorate in sacred music in 1962 from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, studying organ with Vernon de Tar. He augmented his studies with trips to France for lessons with Marie-Claire Alain, and to the Netherlands to participate in the International Academy for Organists in Haarlem.

Dr. Obetz began his teaching career at Albion College in Michigan (1962–67) before being recruited to become principal organist at the headquarters of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS, now known as Community of Christ) in Independence, Missouri. He served in this position from 1967 until his retirement in 1998. His playing and commentary, featured weekly on The Auditorium Organ radio program  and broadcast nationwide for 26 years from 1967 to 1993, brought organ music to millions of listeners across the country and made him one of the United States’ best-known organists. Even today, fans continue to make pilgrimages to the Auditorium’s Aeolian-Skinner (IV/113, 1959), and they share fond memories from their formative years as musicians, when they heard John on the radio playing the familiar measures of J.S. Bach’s G-minor Fantasy, which announced the beginning of the program, and the joyful closing theme, Bach’s chorale on Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein.

In 1993 a second magnificent organ was installed at Community of Christ headquarters, much due to Obetz’s influence: the Casavant Opus 3700 (IV/102) in the dramatic architecture and generous acoustic of the church’s new Temple, located across the street from the Auditorium. At this organ’s tenth anniversary celebration, John said, “We knew that the organ for this room had to be just as effective and be a complement to the Auditorium organ, but speak with a different personality.” John played the inaugural recital for this instrument and recorded two discs there, adding to the collection of numerous LPs and CDs produced during his tenure at the church. 

Throughout his career John Obetz performed extensively in the United States, Canada, and Europe, including such venues as Westminster Abbey in London, the Duomo in Florence, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and many more. A champion of contemporary music, he commissioned and/or premiered works by Ned Rorem, Morton Feldman, Gerald Kemner, and others.

John Obetz also served as an adjunct associate professor of organ for over thirty years, beginning in 1970, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, guiding its students as well as other musicians in the Kansas City area and beyond, fellow members of the American Guild of Organists, and his own grandchildren to learn and appreciate excellence in music-making of all kinds. He retired from the conservatory in 2005. Said his son Peter: 

He loved teaching and more than anything, the thing that struck me this last couple of months has been the amazing appreciation expressed by so many students: heartfelt statements of thanks for believing in them, supporting them, and coaching them to play pieces they never thought they could play, and helping shape them into the musicians they are now. The world continues to hear beautiful music that bears his influence.  

An ardent and active member of the American Guild of Organists, Dr. Obetz served on its national council for nineteen years, chairing several committees and accepting many volunteer and elected roles, including chapter dean, regional chair, and national treasurer. The AGO honored him in its fourth annual gala event in 2007, featuring performances by John and others at both of Community of Christ’s organs. The AGO’s online announcement of his death said, “His inspired leadership, profound wisdom, sage advice, charismatic charm, and keen sense of humor will long be remembered by the Guild.” As his son noted:

His death came only two months after a suspicious CT scan in mid-December. His cancer was aggressive and efficient in attacking its host. Fortunately his was not a long, drawn-out death. . . . He had 81 great years, a beautiful marriage of 61 years, a career that he loved and an ability to have influence on so many. His life was filled with loving, teaching, traveling and, as we all know, a lot of laughter.

In the last week of his life, John designed his own memorial service, held at his home parish, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, on March 12, 2015. Peter Obetz explains:

He asked that I call certain of his students and break the bad news to them but also ask if they would be willing to come to Kansas City and play at his memorial service. . . . He selected which pieces he wanted them to play and being the teacher he was, up until the end he even had me pass along specific tips, such as don’t rush the third section of the Bach Fugue in E-flat. It is not meant to be played fast. Just let it breathe.

Musicians participating in the service were organists Thomas Brown (Chapel Hill, North Carolina), Jan Kraybill (Kansas City), Larry Stratemeyer (Charlotte, North Carolina), and Barry Wenger (Chicago); members of the choirs of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral and St. John’s United Methodist Church, conducted by John Schaefer; and Joyce Steeby, soprano soloist, who sang The Lamb, composed by John Obetz for his son Peter’s baptism. The congregational singing of the many hymns included in the service was glorious.

Not only musicians, but the very instruments on which we play, form part of John Obetz’s rich legacy. The long list of organs for which he served as consultant or primary influence is a testament to his enthusiasm for the future of our art. His most recent and very significant contribution in this regard was as chair of the EPOCH (Experiencing Pipe Organs in Concert Halls) Committee, which worked together for over twenty years to ensure that Kansas City’s new concert hall, Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, would be home to a grand pipe organ. The committee selected James David Christie as the project’s organ consultant, and the result is Casavant Opus 3875 (IV/102, 2012).

Even in his eighties, John continued to be an active and essential contributor to a vibrant future for the organ world. At the time of his death he was serving on the campaign council for the Dome and Spire Organ Foundation, an affiliate organization of Community of Christ, and he was a member of the program committee for the AGO national convention to be held in Kansas City in 2018. He continued to support—through enthusiastic attendance, notes of encouragement, creative ideas, and financial contributions—a wide variety of events, individuals, and organizations in the vibrant artistic culture he had helped to form.

John Obetz is survived by his wife Grace, who for their 61 years of marriage “was his #1 fan and he was hers,” according to their son Peter. Others mourning the loss of their beloved family member are Peter’s wife Christy and daughters Taylor and Riley, John’s brother Wendell and his wife Betty, sister Janet Hofmeister, and many nieces and nephews and extended family. These close family ties were augmented by a “Kansas City family,” a network of dear friends who celebrated holidays and joined family vacations, including treasured time spent in Florida each winter.

Peter closed his eulogy on March 12 in this way:

We should take peace and find joy that he lives on in so many ways, through all of us here and through his vast influence on many who cannot be here. Just as the acoustics of a beautiful cathedral allow notes to reverberate and roll on, he still reverberates. He has played his last notes, but he lives on as a reverberation that all of us can enjoy and marvel at. I ask you to keep your hearts and minds open and to look for him as he lives on. Let him continue to perform, teach and love all of us. He is not gone, he just takes on another form. Listen for his reverberation. Bravo, Dad, bravo!

John Obetz directed that those wishing to make memorial gifts may do so in support of the Music Guild at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, P.O. Box 412048, Kansas City, MO 64141, or the Dome and Spire Organ Foundation, 1001 W. Walnut St., Independence, MO 64050, which is dedicated to the care of and programming for the Auditorium and Temple organs at Community of Christ headquarters.

May he rest in peace. Bravo.