Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

Seven organists from the Chautauqua Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will perform in a Pipe Organ Extravaganza Sunday at the Harriett B. Wick Chapel on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. The concert, which is free and open to the public, begins at 4 p.m. Featured performers are Brian Bogey, Jack Hemink, Ron McEntire, Jennifer Schruers, Cindy Lind Hanson, Andy Schmidt and Donna Gatz, dean of the Chautauqua chapter. Each of the organists will play one or two pieces, including J.S. Bach’s famous “Prelude and Fugue in E Minor. The Sarah B. Dorn Organ in Wick Chapel has 17 ranks and was built by the Schantz Organ Co. for the chapel in 2010. Pictured, front row, from left, Brian Bogey and Jack Hemink; back row, Ron McEntire, Jennifer Schruers, Cindy Lind Hanson, Donna Gatz and Andy Schmidt. Pitt-Bradford photo The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947 For disability-related needs, contact the Office of Di...

The Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce is seeking volunteers to assist with putting up the holiday lighting in Veterans’ Square in downtown Bradford. The lighting project is scheduled for Saturday, November 12th, at 10:00 am. Volunteers interested in helping to put the lights up should contact the BACC office at 814-368-7115 or e-mail ed@bradfordchamber.com . New holiday lighting for downtown Bradford has been provided through the generous support of many individuals and organizations, including Sarah Dorn, Harriett B. Wick, and American Refining Group, Inc. BACC would like to thank everyone who has been a part of the new holiday lighting project for their continued support. Come help us make the holiday season brighter for everyone. Let’s light up Veterans’ Square for the holidays!

By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing For a moment Sunday afternoon, opera legend Marilyn Horne presented an alternate scenario for not only the city of Bradford, but also for herself. Speaking to the media before addressing the largest graduating class in University of Pittsburgh at Bradford history, she wondered if perhaps her family might have stayed in Bradford had Pitt-Bradford existed in 1945. She later touched on the same idea during her speech to the graduates. “Who would have thought when I left in 1945, that I’d be back speaking to the graduating class at Pitt-Bradford, which didn’t even exist at the time,” she said, explaining that her family left Bradford when she was 11 in part to seek an affordable higher education for her and her sister, Gloria. She also spoke about her personal history with her hometown. Although she has graced the world’s most important stages, her first performan...

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has received a $350,000 gift from George Duke in honor of his mother, Sarah B. Dorn, for a 17-rank pipe organ in the campus’s new chapel. “The exquisite Schantz organ was the missing element in an otherwise perfectly designed and beautifully built chapel,” said Dr. Livingston Alexander, president of Pitt-Bradford. “We’re deeply grateful to Mr. Duke for enabling us to acquire the instrument and name it in honor of Mrs. Sarah Dorn.” Flue voicers Stephen Leslie and Jeffrey Herr of Schantz Organ Co. spent several weeks on campus doing the final voicing and tuning for the instrument, which was installed late last month. Each of the organ’s 1,020 pipes is an individual instrument that must be voiced and tuned on site. The pipes can produce notes from 32 cycles per second to 16,000 cycles per second, a range of eight octaves, essentially allowing one person to reproduce an orchestra. Different ranks of pipes are crea...