{"id":13798,"date":"2020-10-08T11:56:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=13798"},"modified":"2020-10-08T11:56:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:56:34","slug":"new-church-owner-pipes-music-into-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/new-church-owner-pipes-music-into-brooklyn\/","title":{"rendered":"New church owner pipes music into Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most renowned pipe organ players in the world is making his home in Queens because of a mosquito bite.<\/p>\n

Xaver Varnus was searching online for a church to buy when a mosquito bit his hand.<\/p>\n

While swatting it, he moved the cursor away from the Ontario map he had been looking at and had the good fortune to land in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just realized that in Nova Scotia, there\u2019s a huge beautiful, building, it\u2019s a church with amazing acoustics,\u201d said Varnus. \u201c So finally I said, this is the mosquito of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

That building is the former Pilgram United Church in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Varnus says he was drawn to the church because of its location and all wood construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the new churches, which is made by [with] dry-wall, actually the acoustic is very dry, like a carpet store, it\u2019s terrible. But somehow the wood church, even if small, has a very rare, very unique acoustic,\u201d said Varnus.<\/p>\n

\"The

The former Pilgram United Church has an all-wood interior. Photo credit: Xaver Varnus<\/p><\/div>\n

He is renovating the parish house as his home and is making some upgrades to the church itself.<\/p>\n

Still the church was missing one key feature and that\u2019s a pipe organ.<\/p>\n

He quickly set about looking for one and as luck would have it, the First Baptist Church in Truro had posted theirs for sale.<\/p>\n

Not only was an organ available locally, but, it fit the Brooklyn church perfectly.<\/p>\n

Moving a 14 ton organ made up of 3,000 pipes is no easy undertaking.<\/p>\n

\"Some

Some of the 3,000 pipes that make up the new pipe organ. Photo credit: Xaver Varnus<\/p><\/div>\n

Varnus hired Colin Walsh and his team to dissemble, transport and reassemble the pipe organ.<\/p>\n

The crew have moved the organ from Truro and have been putting it back together in its new home all week.<\/p>\n

Varnus estimates it should be in place and operational before the end of the month.<\/p>\n

He has been overwhelmed by the reception from the people in his new home. Since arriving in Brooklyn from Ontario, he had to follow the COVID-19 quarantine protocols. He says once he was finished his isolation, his neighbours , curious about the church\u2019s new owner, have been bringing him food and gifts to welcome him to the community.<\/p>\n

He intends to return that kindness by treating them to a short concert program of Bach once the pipe organ is installed, and according to Varnus, the best tea they\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n

That will be the first of many performances Varnus has in mind as he plans to put both the organ and his phone book to good use.<\/p>\n

Over the years he has become friends with musicians from around the globe and he will be inviting many of them to visit Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Despite the massive renovations, for Varnus, owning an independent church with it\u2019s own great pipe organ is a dream come true.<\/p>\n

He says even when he falls to sleep at night exhausted he wakes with a burst of energy, eager to experience another day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the only difference between me and most of the other organists at age,\u201d said Varnus. \u201cI think God made a mistake and he put three more batteries in my back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported by Ed Halverson\u00a0<\/strong>
\nE-mail:\u00a0edhalversonnews@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nTwitter: @edwardhalverson<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most renowned pipe organ players in the world is making his home in Queens because of a mosquito bite. Xaver Varnus was searching online for a church to buy when a mosquito bit his hand. While swatting it, he moved the cursor away from the Ontario map he had been looking at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":13887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[1975,1974,1976,1973],"radio":[250],"origine":[274,279,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13798"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=13798"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=13798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}