Georgetown College recieved two Monarke organs built by Johannus. Both organs were installed in the John L. Hill Chapel on campus. The main organ will be one of the largest organs in Kentucky.
After 40 years of teaching on the Music faculty of Georgetown College Professor Daniel Tilford realized his dream. A big and beautiful Johannus organ in the chapel of the school, meant for worships, convocations, celebrations, but most of all for teaching.
After many years of service the old organ is ready for replacement. The new organ, which will be named the ‘Osborne-Tilford Family Organ’, has been made out of a Cavaillé Coll and Van Rhijn Baroque organ made by Johannus in Holland. The responsible dealer for this project is Rivierstad Organ Consultants from Kentucky.
The organ will be named the ‘Osborne-Tilford Family Organ’, because the original part of the funding for building the organ was bequested by Mrs. Mildred Osborne who mentioned Georgetown College in her will. The other part was donated by Mr. Tilford’s son, Bradley, who owns a software company in Atlanta, GA.
After 40 years of teaching, Prof. Tilford’s other son, Stephen, succeeded his father as piano teacher on the music faculty of Georgetown College. Besides thanking Mrs. Osborne and Bradley Tilford by giving the organ their names, the organ is also a way to remember Prof. Tilford’s 40 years of teaching and his son, Stephen, who recently died of cancer.
The chapel of the school where the organ will be placed, seats 800 persons. In September this year the organ will be inaugurated. In the following two years, there will be multiple celebrations with the organ combined with other instruments and vocal support. At the end of the two years they hope to have a final celebration with a well-known organist.
The ‘Osborne-Tilford Family Organ’, as mentioned earlier, exists of two different organs. The Cavaillé Coll and the Van Rhijn Baroque organ.
The Cavaillé Coll has an amazing number of 112 voices. It has 132 ranks, 4 manuals and a AGO pedalboard. There are 4 independent pipe façades and the audio contains 158 loudspeakers.
The Van Rhijn Baroque Organ has 31 voices, 38 ranks, 2 manuals and a BDO pedalboard. It is sampled from a Silbermann pipe organ of the year 1726 and includes a positive pipe façade.