A pipe organ installed at First Lutheran Church of West Seattle back in 1976 is turning 50, and the congregation is marking the occasion with a free concert on September 27 that doubles as a tribute to the musician who played it for half a century. The instrument, known as Opus 83, was the first organ that the Massachusetts-based Noack Organ Company ever placed on the West Coast, and it will be showcased alongside a second, smaller Noack organ housed in the church's chapel.
The concert, called Soli Deo Gloria, is free and open to all without an admission charge, according to West Seattle Blog. It begins at 3 p.m. at the church, located at 4105 California Avenue SW. The program is built around the 50th anniversary of the gallery organ's dedication, which took place on September 26, 1976, in a recital performed by David P. Dahl, an organ professor at Pacific Lutheran University who presented an eclectic program of Bach and other European pre-Bach keyboard works, according to the Tacoma Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Select encore pieces from Dahl's original 1976 program will be reprised during the anniversary concert.
An Instrument Built to Break the Mold
Opus 83 was designed with 18 stops across two manual divisions, suspended mechanical tracker action, high lead-content pipe metal, and a wind-driven cimbelstern, per the Tacoma AGO's account of the instrument's construction. Builder Fritz Noack designed the organ as a departure from strict neo-baroque organ-building ideals of the era, giving the West Seattle church a distinctive voice among Pacific Northwest pipe organs.
The September 27 program will also draw on a second instrument: a four-stop Noack chamber organ housed in the church's chapel, cataloged as Opus 142. Both instruments were built by the Noack Organ Company in Georgetown, Massachusetts, and the chapel organ will be used during selections written for two organs, according to First Lutheran Church of West Seattle. Organist Dana Robinson will perform those two-organ selections alongside Paul Tegels, who retired in May 2023 as Associate Professor Emeritus of Music and University Organist at Pacific Lutheran University. Tegels and Robinson previously built an extensive organ duet repertoire together, according to Pacific Lutheran University.
Honoring a 50-Year Musical Partnership
The concert series honors the memory of Andrew King, the church's longtime organist, per West Seattle Blog. Cantor and organist Andrew James King served First Lutheran Church of West Seattle for 50 years, from August 1974 until his death on August 7, 2024, at age 74, while concurrently working 35 years as Vice President of Finance for Rainier Industries, according to an obituary published on Legacy.com.
King's musical partner at the church, choirmaster Dean Walter Hard, retired on Pentecost, June 8, 2025, after serving 50 years alongside King. Hard, who first joined the church choir as a West Seattle High School student in the 1950s, delayed his own departure following King's death to shepherd the congregation through its musical leadership transition, according to First Lutheran Church of West Seattle. That transition brought Dana Robinson to First Lutheran in September 2025, after he retired from a 25-year career as an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, as reported by West Seattle Blog.
Bach Concerto Rounds Out the Program
Beyond the organ works, the September 27 concert will feature the Seattle Bach Festival Orchestra performing an early version of Bach's Concerto in D Minor for Keyboard, BWV 1052, led by Tekla Cunningham. The Seattle Bach Festival was founded in 2024 by Cunningham, a baroque violinist who also serves as concertmaster for Pacific MusicWorks, to present J.S. Bach masterworks and baroque chamber music using period instruments across the Puget Sound region, according to the Seattle Bach Festival.
The September 27 performance is one of four free concerts in the Soli Deo Gloria anniversary series, which spans from April 2026 to February 2027 and also brings guest recitals by Nathan Laube of the Eastman School of Music, Michael Kleinschmidt of St. Mark's Cathedral, and Anne Laver of Syracuse University to West Seattle, according to the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia.
A West Seattle Landmark Since 1918
Fir A. Denny, and features concrete arches and vaulted beam ceilings designed for sacred acoustics, per First Lutheran Church of West Seattle.
