Important News Updates

Scroll down for News!

Email the Friends for more info: execdirec@wanamakerorgan.com

We’re pulling out all the stops for a full and mainly free Wanamaker Organ Day celebration Saturday September 25. Peter Richard Conte welcomes special guest Raul Prieto Ramirez from the Spreckels Organ in San Diego! The Evening Concert, starring Conte and Ramirez, includes a playing of Dupre’s powerhouse Symphonie-Passion as the musical wonderwork marks its 100th anniversary!

Precise details for the weekend can be found in the program accessible at left. The Saturday Morning concert will be streamcast live and for free at 11 am ET using the link from the banner directly above. Our plans for Friday include free organ and shop tours following the noon concert, an early (5 pm) Wanamaker Organ daily concert, and a catered, ticketed wine and hors-d’oeuvres event in Greek Hall that pays tribute to retired curator Curt Mangel—still an active member of the Friends team.

Saturday activities call for a 9 A.M. showing of our Wanamaker Organ Yearbook documentary on the big screens in Greek Hall. Light refreshments will be served. The film includes fascinating segments on the Organ Case and Eagle restoration, plus lots of behind-the-scenes project footage and a feature on Macy’s and Philadelphia during the lockdown. Meet in the Juniper Street Lobby.

Then at 11 the free Grand Opening Concert features Peter Richard Conte and his associate organists. Thrill to performances by Rudy Lucente, Dylan David Shaw, Mark Bani, Colin Howland and Aaron Patterson as the Organ’s massive sonic resources are unleashed from the organ flight deck, in a program in memory of longtime Friends supporter Michael McDermott. Prepare for goosebumps!

At 2 pm John Baratta takes command of our Mighty Wurlitzer in Greek Hall, in a program of music from the Great American Songbook, with a silent short. A nominal admission is charged at the door.

Following the Wurlitzer concert are free Wanamaker Organ pipe-chamber tours and an opportunity to visit our Wanamaker Organ museum, Hall of Flags and restoration studios.

At 5 pm, Philadelphia Brass adds its blazing resources to the mighty Wanamaker in a program presented in memory of YesterdayUSA’s beloved Bill Bragg.

Then at 8 pm, an evening of electrifying entertainment begins with a brief film as the closed store quiets for the night. Raul Prieto Ramirez , the hugely popular master of San Diego’s famous outdoor pipe organ,

shares the stage with Mr. Conte for the ticketed Grand Evening Concert, held in the closed Macy’s.

Included is Mr. Conte’s sensational centennial performance of the electrifying Dupré Symphonie-Passion.

The powerhouse work is a testament to musical genius that staggered all present when a polished musical symphony spontaneously burst forth from four previously unseen musical themes, in a Grand Court improvisation exactly a century ago. The concert concludes at 9:50 pm.

This special evening program is presented in loving memory of longtime assistant Wanamaker Organist John Binsfeld.

For those staying over through Sunday we will have more organ chamber and Shop tours, at 11 am and again at 2 pm. In-between the Wanamaker Organ Sonic Odyssey film will be shown in Greek Hall. Visitors will also have an opportunity of seeing shop projects in progress, and viewing the organ console.

During the pandemic we all have been deprived of the beauty of music that comes unfiltered through actual acoustic instruments. The sound of the Wanamaker Grand Organ is like nothing on earth and no virtual experience can fully capture the majesty and grandeur of hearing it in person. That is even more so at night time, when the finer details are revealed in all their magnificence, and artists can unleash the Organ’s full power with reckless abandon. The result: sublime beauty that thrills to the core!

Look for further details  as plans are finalized! Please mark your calendars nowand look to this space for exciting updates!

June 22 was the Wanamaker Organ’s 110th birthday! For the occasion the mighty Founder’s Bell atop One South Broad was rung 110 times, and Peter Richard Conte played two special concerts. Press coverage is HERE! Also HERE! Also HERE!

June was also “Pipe Organ Month” in Philadelphia, and during the month of June we streamed and archived special Peter Richard Conte after hours concerts first broadcast each Wednesday at 1 P.M. For the link to the Wednesday June 2 concert, CLICK HERE!  For the June 9 concert, CLICK HERE!  For the June 16 concert, CLICK HERE! For the June 23 concert CLICK HERE! For the June 30 concert, CLICK HERE! 

Thanks so very much to all who made our Spring Concert Streamcast such a wonderful success. Particular thanks go to David Kim and Peter Richard Conte, with much backstage preparation from Jon Buchanan and Matt Taft. Thanks to all who made donations, too, to provide much needed funds for these expensive virtual presentations.

Our video yearbook is available to all members who renew at the contributor level or higher. Thank you for your understanding for production delays.

The summer issue of our newsletter was mailed June 25 and should arrive in your mailboxes shortly. 

The Spring Issue of the Friends newsletter has these exciting stories:

• Major Spring Virtual Concert Streamcast is in production featuring Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster David Kim and Peter Richard Conte, and also Conte Organ Solo Masterworks
• How professional restorers thoroughly restored our Eagle
• Major progress made on Solo Division
• How our gigantic Pedal mixture, the Grand Mutation, is being restored and what its sonic impact will be
• John Wanamaker’s Giant Electric Sign in Manhattan
• What was the Wanamaker Store in New York like when Wanamaker’s brought Marcel Dupre to dedicate its new Auditorium Organ
• How the pandemic is affecting Philadelphia and the Store
• Macy’s benefits from major construction initiatives
• Major Audsley landmark to be restored in Liverpool
• Readers send letters of appreciation for our streamcasts
• What happens when there are three Keith’s in the Organ Loft.
• Wit and wisdom from the late John Binsfeld.

Paid monthly tours have resumed! Tickets are available under the tour section of our webstore. Secure your admissions now!

Listen to a Public Radio Tale of Two Pandemics—and the Wanamaker Organ—below!

Enjoy Macy’s new virtual edition of its Philadelphia Christmas Light Show below!

Michael Barone’s Pipedreams presents a Virtual Wanamaker Organ Day HERE!

Macy’s reopened Friday June 12 at 11 am with the sound of music! Hallelujah! You can listen to “America the Beautiful” HERE!

A 2021 Wanamaker Organ Day remains just a pipe dream for the moment, but retail historian Michael Lisicky pays tribute to it in FORBES HERE! A FORBES article on John Wanamaker and Macy’s in times of pandemic by Lisicky is HERE.

CLICK ITEMS BELOW FOR A FREE WANAMAKER ORGAN VIRTUAL CONCERT AS WE SUPPORT THE ARTS IN THIS TIME OF ARTISTIC CRISIS!

Hear Peter Richard Conte play Moonlight Music from Richard Strauss’s Capriccio HERE
Hear Thomas Murray play Mouret’s Rondeau HERE
Hear Peter Richard Conte play the Scherzo from the Guilmant Sonata VIII HERE
Hear Thomas Murray play Grieg;s Anitra’s Dance HERE
Hear Thomas Murray play Elgar’s Imperial March HERE
Hear Peter Richard Conte and Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim in a Bach Duet HERE
Hear Conte and Kim in the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria in a presentation celebrating the artistic and musical legacy of Rodman Wanamaker, HERE
Conte and Kim play Fritz Kreisler’s Preludium and Allegro HERE
And the duo play the Meditation from Thais by Massenet HERE
SPEND SOME QUALITY TIME CHECKING OUT OUR CD and DVD SAMPLER!

Enjoy scenes from our Around the Wanamaker Organ in 80 Minutes DVD HERE

Sample the Keith Chapman Diamond Anniversary Wanamaker Organ concertHERE
Explore the tonal resources of the Wanamaker Organ with our Sonic Odyssey Sampler HERE
Thrill to Rachmaninoff Concerto Samples for Organ and Piano HERE
Enjoy highlights from our Symphonic Splendor Organ and Orchestra CD DVD set HERE
Explore the Wanamaker Organ with our Curator’s Tour starring Michael Barone and Curt Mangel, sampled HERE
All these titles are available for purchase and immediate shipping at our WEBSTORE.
ANNOUNCEMENT:  Scroll down to see our latest CD and DVD! Website features on store amenities such as the Visitor Center reflect pre-Coronavirus conditions that may not yet have been reinstated as the store gradually reopens.

For those who have renewed, Premium Item A, our 2019 Video Yearbook,  and Premium Item J, Symphonic Spendor, have completed production and were mailed out March 27. Symphonic Splendor is available for purchase from the DVD section of our webstore, with immediate shipping! Don’t miss this stupendous new production—enjoy the finest in Wanamaker Organ music with orchestra from the comfort of your own home! CLICK HERE TO SAMPLE  THE DVD!
An enticing selection of Wanamaker Organ CDs, DVDs and books is available for purchase at our webstore, with Immediate Shipping, and at the Macy’s Info Desk on the First Floor, Market, at the entrance to the Grand Court. Visiting during the Holidays? Check out our Macy’s Light Show feature from the menu at left!
SOME NOTES ON OUR NEW WEBSITE: We redesigned the website this summer and think it offers many improvements. At the same time, our webstore platform CoolCart went out of business in October and we moved to the SquareSpace platform. Many of you enjoy giving multiple gift subscriptions when you renew your membership, or like to give special amounts, and the new renewal platform varies slightly from the old one.
Getting to the point, if there is anything specific you would like to do when renewing and can’t quite make it work out on the new renewal page, please feel free to give us a call at 484/684 7250 and we will be delighted to help you!


Watch a 6ABC tribute to the Wanamaker Organ by clicking  the box above!
Enjoy a Pipedreams Michael Stairs tribute featuring the Wanamaker Organ HERE!