by David C. Pike, Tonal Director & Andrew X. Gingery, Project Manager
The new pipe organ at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, was designed and built by C. B. Fisk, Inc., of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Opus 136 of the Fisk firm, the three-manual instrument comprises forty-one ranks housed in a red oak and mahogany case. Charles Nazarian, design consultant, developed the visual design of the organ with members of the Fisk shop and in consultation with the St. Peter’s Organ Committee and Building Master Plan Committee. The Fisk workers built an exact scale model of the recently renovated nave and chapels and created the design within it so that the organ would retain its own identity, yet harmonize with the church’s interior. The elegant rose window above the organ presented a unique design challenge. The organ case, in the form of a double necklace, not only allows the view of the window to remain unencumbered, but also, by giving the window context, seems to enhance its luminous effect in the nave.