Members and visitors enjoyed a Christmas Music Exchange, where several members played their favorite Christmas pieces, followed by an open organ console, an exchange of music, and sandwiches and delicious cookies. Many thanks to Joyce Rhodes for so graciously hosting us.

Just Add Feet! at First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto, was a great success. The participants all had a good time and couldn't wait to get their fingers on the organ keyboard. We had 17 attendees, even though 29 signed up. That actually worked fine so that each person got enough attention and time on the console.  All the evaluations were very positive at the end.  

We took our OrgelKids kit to the Music teachers Association of Calfonnia’s Convention in San Jose. Great fun had by all!

Chapter members elected the slate of chapter officers for the upcoming year, enjoyed each others playing in the open console session, and finished a delicious and varied Pot Luck.

Stephen Price gave an inspiring masterclass on Creative Hymn Playing to a joint meeting of the San Jose and Peninsula chapters. After taking us through about five hymns, giving suggestions for the introduction and how to play each verse, he tutored six “students” with his encouraging and helpful advice and comments.

Jörg Reddin of Arnstadt, Germany, who is the most recent successor as Kantor to the exact same job JS Bach held, delighted the combined Bay Area chapters of the American Guild of Organists and friends in a concert of much early Bach, written in Arnstadt, pieces by Bach's great uncle Heinrich Bach, some Fracobaldi and not one, but two Toccata-Fugue pairs from different eras of Bach's career.

Sisters Ruth (age 25) and Elizabeth (age 16) Kamas are recent winners of the San Jose Chapter AGO's annual Frasier scholarship. They collaborated to present an exciting and varied program on the tonally colorful 1986 3-manual Balcom and Vaughan organ at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church.

Our Pedals, Pipes & Pizza event at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church on Saturday morning, Feb. 8, was a resounding success.  We welcomed 14 piano students (ages 8-16), along with many of their parents, for an engaging, educational and inspiring morning of organ music and activities.  

Chapter members introduced each other to favorite holiday season organ music at this fun event.

Dr. Elena Paradies gave a fascinating illustrated presentation on teaching pre-college organ students using modern day technology at the Chapter’s October 2024 meeting.

Clara Chan received her AGO Achievement Awards for Organ Console, Manual and Pedal, Registration, Harmony, and Transposition at the Chapter’s October 2024 meeting.

We assembled and played our own organ from our new OrgelKids kit!

We elected our new Dean and Sub-Dean at our Annual Meeting, held in Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church.