In 1978, Gabriel Kney, a French-Canadian organ-builder working out of London, Ontario built and installed Christ Church’s very fine three-manual mechanical action (tracker) organ. This is the largest tracker organ in a Calgary church and in addition to its regular duties enhancing Sunday worship, is often used as a concert instrument. In 1994, both the console and pipes were moved from the front of the church to a newly-constructed gallery at the back, just in time to be used in the first round of the 1994 International Organ Competition. Since then, it has been featured in numerous “organ crawls” and music festivals.

Mount Royal University’s Carthy Organ in Wyatt Hall is a three-manual, mechanical action teaching instrument with an electronic combination memory card system. Created by Orgues Létourneau, the organ reflects time-honoured traditions in its craftsmanship and exceptional voice and tone. Measuring twenty feet in height by nineteen feet in width, the organ has three polished bone and rosewood manuals and a maple and rosewood pedal board. Hand-carved, solid-oak cabinetry houses twenty-nine ranks of pipes – more than 1,600 polished alloy and wood pipes in total – and twenty-seven stops.

Knox United’s Organ (Casavant Frères Opus 2336, 2001, Originally built in 1956) has 70 ranks, 5,018 pipes, 6 divisions, 4 manuals and 62 stops and is one of Alberta’s biggest and best!

The church’s architecture contributes to the instrument’s dynamic sound and, besides being a historical landmark, makes this organ a must-hear in Calgary.

Highwood Lutheran Church lays claim to having the oldest pipe organ in Alberta. The organ was completed in 1870 by the O’Dell Organ Company of New York. It was built for a Presbyterian church in Sing-Sing, New York. It was obtained by Highwood from a Baptist church in Ossining, NY in 1967.

Highwood Lutheran’s organ is a mechanical, tracker-action instrument. The organ has two manuals and a pedalboard. The manuals each have fifty-eight keys and the pedal has twenty-five keys. There are twenty-three ranks, four couplers, eight combination pistons and approximately four thousand individual pipes ranging in size from a few inches long to sixteen feet long. It has three divisions, or sections; the Great Division, the Swell Division and the Pedal Division.