The next stop on the Great Elgin Pipe Organ Tour will be at St. Mary Catholic Church on Sunday, February 23rd, at 4:00 p.m. The instrument being featured was built in 1926 by George Kilgen & Son, of St. Louis, MO, and then rebuilt in 1987 by Berghaus Pipe Organ Builders of Bellwood, IL. The program will be performed by St. Mary’s music director and organist, Vilma Dydas. Mrs. Dydas, who also teaches music at the adjacent St. Mary Catholic School, holds two master’s degrees in Church Music and Liturgy and is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Vilnius, Lithuania. The program will feature works by Handel, Fletcher, Vierne, and Widor as well as several pieces performed with the choirs of St. Mary’s.

Admission is free, and a free-will offering will be taken to support the ministries of St Mary’s and the continued restoration of the pipe organ. Upcoming concerts will feature the pipe organs at Zion Lutheran, First Presbyterian, and Holy Trinity Lutheran before culminating with an organ and orchestra concert at First Congregational.