City ‘crawling’ with good music

Published 12:00 am Friday, November 5, 2010

There’s a big crawl this Saturday in Andalusia.

Members of the Pensacola chapter of the American Guild of Organists plan to visit Andalusia for an organ crawl.

“The organ crawl may get its name from pub crawls, but my contact at the Pensacola chapter of the American Guild of Organists assures me that we’re not likely to have any drunken organists among them,” Steve Hubbard said.

Hubbard, the organist at First Presbyterian Church, said “crawlers” visit in one day different churches that have pipe organs.

Ten to 15 members of the Pensacola AGO chapter are expected to participate, and locals are invited to join them.

“They won’t all play the organs, but probably three or four of them will,” Hubbard said.

At each of the three Andalusia locations – First United Methodist Church (11 a.m.), First Presbyterian Church (1:30 p.m.) and First Baptist (3 p.m.) – someone will talk about the church’s instrument and several selections will be played.

“I don’t know what the folks from Pensacola will play, but it could range from a Bach chorale to a modern variation on a hymn tune,” Hubbard said.

“All who are interested in church organ music, regardless of whether they are organists, are invited to come,” Hubbard said.

John Beasley will talk about the organs at First Methodist and First Baptist.