Organ Club
The Organ Club is a group of organists, calcants, and organ enthusiasts.
The Wellesley Organ Club is a fantastic way for students to learn about the C.B. Fisk organ, how to pump the instrument, and how to play it. No prior experience with the organ is necessary – just a curiosity about this amazing instrument and how it produces such beautiful sounds. Plus, you’ll learn the ins and outs of how to access the gilded spinning star, the Zimbelstern!
We meet on the balcony of Houghton Chapel once a week to make music together, provide the wind for the organ, and discuss topics related to the pipe organ. Members of the organ club play pieces together or on their own, depending on their experience in reading or playing music, and they take turns performing the role of the calcant. Pipes of an organ require wind to make their sound and the calcants provide the wind by pumping the bellows. While this may seem to be an easy task, any student will tell you that small changes in your pumping produce big changes in the way the pipes speak! A calcant “rides” the bellows down with the weight of their body, climbs several steps, and repeats the action – over and over as long as the organist wants to play. Calcants provide the wind for all musical events in the chapel that require the organ. This generous donation of time and energy creates a living and (literally) breathing instrument of exquisite sensitivity. Only a handful of organs have such a pumping mechanism still intact!
A brief history of the Fisk Organ
Since its inception in ancient times, the organ has been the most complex machine for centuries. We can experience some of this history back to the 17th century when playing and pumping the Fisk organ in Houghton Chapel. Built in 1981, the Fisk organ draws inspiration from North European organs of the early Baroque period, specifically St. Jacobi Church in Lübeck, Germany (1636).
Joining Organ Club
You may join the Organ Club at any point during the academic year. No application is required for the Organ Club. To join, please email the College Organist Erica Johnson at ej100@wellesley.edu.
Organ Scholars
Students may audition to join the Organ Scholars. Open to all students and effective for the full academic year, organ scholarships are awarded to organists who have a serious interest in learning how to play the organ.
Recipients will be expected to take organ lessons, practice regularly, attend weekly Organ Club, study a variety of historical and contemporary repertoire, and develop an appreciation for the many styles of organ construction and performance practices.
Applications are available at the start of the fall semester. Beginners are welcome.
A performance
Watch Erica Johnson, College Organist and faculty adviser for the Organ Club, play the Fisk Organ!
Erica Johnson, Faculty Adviser and College Organist
Erica Johnson is a Boston-based keyboardist. She joined the faculty of Wellesley College as College Organist and Instructor in Organ and Harpsichord in 2019.
Erica's education in organ performance spans the roughly 500 years of repertoire in existence for this amazing instrument, although she does have a particular affection for the music of the 17th century. The college’s unique organ in Houghton Chapel by C.B. Fisk in meantone temperament is the perfect instrument for understanding the expression of harmony and architecture of sound found in keyboard music through the early 18th century. One of Erica's goals here at Wellesley is to make this organ sound as beautifully as possible to all who experience it in the chapel and to celebrate with the whole community what a treasure this instrument truly is.
As an organ instructor, Erica has taught at the UNC School of the Arts, Salem College, and Oberlin Conservatory. Erica designed and taught a graduate course in organ literature at the Eastman School of Music for two years during her doctoral studies. As a church musician, Erica served as Organ Scholar at the Memorial Church of Harvard University from 1999-2001 (accompanying the University Choir and playing for services), and she has held many church positions over the years. More recently Erica has been the Director of Liturgy and Music at Sacred Heart Parish in Newton Centre since 2017, and freelances in churches around Boston. Judging organ competitions is another opportunity Erica enjoys. She has served on the panels for the Boston AGO Chapter Competition, the Arthur Poister Competition, and the Boston Bach International Organ Competition.
Erica graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory and Oberlin College (BM in organ and BA in economics), the New England Conservatory (MM), and the Eastman School of Music (DMA), studying with Haskell Thomson, William Porter, and Hans Davidsson. With a generous grant from the Beebe Fund for Musicians, Erica was able to study in North Germany for two years at the Hochschule für Musik in Bremen with Harald Vogel. Those years yielded two honors: the 2004 International Arp Schnitger Prize awarded by the Arp Schnitger Gesellschaft for promoting the legacy of the organ builder, and also two performance awards during the 2002 Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR) Musikpreis, held on the instruments in Basedow, Stade-St. Wilhadi, and Norden-Ludgerikirche.
Erica's current performance goals include how to promote the music of female composers for the organ. She has performed several programs featuring only the music of women composers, and there is so much more beautiful music from these women that needs to be heard! When not sitting at the organ console, Erica enjoys spending time with her family, taking long walks, and seeking out ice cream vendors in beautiful locations.
