Keeping the faith with an awesome set of pipes.

The pipe organ at Marsh Chapel, Boston University

Thursday, July 16, 1998 -- Boston, Massachusetts - The pipe organ is not a portable instrument - it is the size of a house. So when this massive device is played by a seventy-eight pound, twelve year old boy - and played so well the floor shakes and the audience cheers - it is an inspiring event.

The Pipe Organ Encounter in Boston this past week was such an event. Thirty-two children from around the state spent five days playing many of the massive pipe organs around Boston, taking lessons from accomplished organists, attending concerts and holding a public recital. The P.O.E., now in its second decade, was organized for its first time in Boston by Glenn Goda, organist at the city's Mission Church.

There are hundreds of pipe organs in the state of Massachusetts - the area around Boston has always been the most prominent organ building area in the country, according to Goda. The problem as of late, has been that there are fewer and fewer pipe organists.

To master the pipe organ takes a good amount of practice and lessons for even an experienced pianist. Churches around this state are feeling the pinch from a lack of pipe organists and it is easier for a person to learn the instrument at an early age. The goal of the Encounter is to introduce children to this incredible instrument.

These beautiful machines are like dinosaurs in today's electronic world - they are expensive, finicky and more difficult to play than an electronic organ or a piano. But there is no argument about it, they are awesome.

Their magnificence is what has possibly attracted so many boys to pipe organs (there were thirty-five boys at this Encounter, with only seventeen girls.) "It's the noise," says Goda. "It's a power thing."

Glenn Goda, organizer of the Boston area Pipe Organ Encounter, plays the big pipes in Marsh Chapel, at Boston University.