photography, Rants and raves, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Free festival lets maestros take San Miguel’s ‘new’ 1875 pipe organ at Templo de la Tercera Orden out for a spin — and the public is invited along for the ride

After today’s concert in the Temple of the Third Order on Calle San Francisco, the maestro David Soteno Jimenez from Metepec in the State of Mexico had nothing but praise for the nearly 150-year-old pipe organ on which he performed.

“It is magnificent,” he enthused. “You see that it has only one keyboard and yet it has such a range of sound.” His one observation was that the stops that provide the keyboard its range take a bit of muscle to pull out — not an easy feat when your fingers are rolling a glissando down the keys.

He laughed as he mimicked a tug of war with the instrument, then showered it with more love.

Soteno Jimenez is the first artist from outside of San Miguel de Allende to “kick the tires” so to speak on the recently installed organ.

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San Miguel de Allende

Picking up the pieces: Malcolm Halliday’s musical dream comes together in the Templo de Tercera Orden

Patrick J. Murphy fine-tunes each of the 400-plus pipes, one by one, in the 150-year-old organ that was disassembled, refurbished, and sent to San Miguel de Allende for assembly. (Photo courtesy of Alfredo Lanier)

Malcolm Halliday’s dream is about to come true.

The head of Chorale San Miguel has longed for a musical instrument that could equal and enhance the vocal power of his troupe of singers. A pipe organ was his instrument of choice and in November, San Miguelians will be able to share with Halliday and the chorus the realization of that dream.

San Miguel resident Alfredo Lanier tells the story of this pipe organ and the challenges met in getting it refurbished, shipped in pieces to San Miguel, reconstructed and, soon, to be a centerpiece in the classical musical universe of San Miguel.

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