PALM HARBOR, Fla. — A church in Palm Harbor is hosting a dedication concert for its brand-new pipe organ, which was installed over the summer.

What You Need To Know

  • St. Alfred's Episcopal Church holds dedication ceremony for completed installation of a pipe organ

  • The 2019 pipes arrived at the church in June, and took over a month to install and tune

  • The organist for the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. to christen the organ during the church's dedication concert

  • Members of the church raised over a $1 million to get this organ delivered to Palm Harbor from Canada

Parishioners raised over $ 1 million to get the 2019 pipes delivered to their sanctuary from a company in Canada. It took several weeks to install them.

Thomas Sheehan, the associate director of music and organist for the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., has been tapped to christen the instrument. Sheehan has played the organ for some of the most memorable memorials in our country’s recent history, like the funerals for Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and the American service for Queen Elizabeth.

For him, no instrument really tops the intricate sound an organ can make.

“I love the sort of limitless sound variety that the organ has,” he said.

And, boy, does he love testing those limits.

“[It can do] a generic organ sound, but it can also sound like a flute or a trumpet. It just sort of has so many different options to it," he said.

He’ll be showcasing those options in front of hundreds of people at St. Alfred’s Episcopal Church in Palm Harbor on Friday night.

The congregation is dedicating this organ after a long and winding road finally leading to Sheehan’s performance.

It’s something fellow organist, and St. Alfred’s choir director, Kevin Johnson, has dreamed of for over 22 years.

“It's such an emotional moment,” Johnson said. “It's a dream realized.”

Johnson has been wanting a pipe organ in this parish for over 20 years.

In 2021, he and the church began efforts to raise enough money to buy the 2019 pipes that make up this organ and have them installed in the sanctuary. In just a year and a half, they raised $1.2 million.

“It's been a long process, but it's been an exciting one,” Johnson said.

He says it took a month to individually install each pipe, then another two weeks to properly tune each one. When he was first able to hear its majestic sound, all that waiting was worth it.

“In one of my practice sessions, I was playing the last few chords of a Franck chorale and the tears just started to come,” Johnson said.

Now, he gets to hear his church’s new organ played by a master of the instrument.

“It was a real blessing to be able to have him come and play for us,” Johnson said of Sheehan.

For Sheehan, it’s a blessing for him, as well, and said the hard work for Johnson and the congregants is finally complete so now comes the time to rejoice in their house of worship.

“I feel like everybody just gets to relax and just enjoy the day,” Sheehan said. “Yeah, the fruits of the labors.”

Friday’s dedication is also the same day as the church’s 60th anniversary.