Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts is honored to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the first Wurlitzer concert in the fall of 2006 with the performance of Theatre Organ Legend JONAS NORDWALL on Sunday, November 9 at 2 PM on the newly restored McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer in Foxburg’s Lincoln Hall.
Join us in this time of thanksgiving as ARCA honors the vision and generosity of its founding board members, Dr. Arthur Steffee and Paul McKissick with the performance of this internationally acclaimed “Grand Master of the Organ”, who will inspire and bedazzle ARCA’s theatre organ loving audience with his venerated artistry in both classical and modern/popular music.
The recipient of rave reviews worldwide, for over a half century Jonas Nordwall has presented concerts and workshops in churches and performing arts centers in Japan, Europe, China and has made several tours of Australia. The only American organist to play a solo concert at the famed Sydney Town Hall for an audience of over 2,000, this concert was broadcast throughout the South Pacific by the Australian Broadcasting Company. In 1999, he was both an adjudicator and recitalist for the Swiss International Organ Competition in Geneva.
With over 25 highly acclaimed recordings on many labels, his performances are frequently heard on the internationally syndicated radio show, “Pipedreams”. His national television broadcasts include NBC’s “Today Show” and the ABC’s “Good Morning Australia.”
There is no one better to demonstrate the glorious sound of the newly renovated McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer including new bass pipes at the back of the hall. Join us to experience the musical and artistic fruits of the labors of ARCA’s organ technician Jason Wiles in the hands of this master.
As ARCA is nearing the end of its campaign to underwrite the Wurlitzer Restoration project, it is grateful for the generosity of all those who contributed to make it possible. Anyone still wishing to participate may contribute on ARCA’s homepage.
During COVID in 2020 when public concerts were not possible, the Sanfilippo Foundation posted a YouTube video of a “replayed” performance of Jonas Nordwall on their magnificent Wurlitzer – a work for which he is renowned, “Pinball Wizard” by the Who.
Nordwall is among the most respected theatre organists nationally. His prodigious accomplishments began at a very very early age. At the age of 16, Nordwall performed for King Gustav Adolf during a tour of Sweden – where he returned in September 2025 for the Stockholm International Organ Festival. In advance of the performance, Jonas about his distinguished career as an organist as well as his first trip to play for King Adolf.
In college, Jonas had the rare opportunity to be the organist at the Paramount and Oriental Theaters in Portland. For many years he was the Senior Staff Organist for the legendary Organ Grinder Corporation, with large Wurlitzer pipe organs in lavish restaurants in Portland and Denver.
As the organist for the Oregon Symphony Orchestra during the tenure of Maestro James DePriest, Nordwall was a featured soloist for several concerts and has recorded with the orchestra on the Delos label. In 1987 the American Theatre Organ Society named him Organist of the Year and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2022. He directs the ATOS Summer Youth Adventure, the ATOS version of the AGO Pipe Organ Encounter young organist program.
Nordwall has been a professional church musician since high school. He has served as the organist for Portland’s First United Methodist Church since 1971 and is presently the Artistic Director of Music. There he oversees one of the finest music ministries in the United States. He has played for many international church gatherings, an accompanist for the American Choral Directors Association conventions, and performed for several regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists.
In addition to his musical performances, Nordwall has been a major influence in the later 20th century design and manufacturing of both pipe and electronic organs. He introduced MIDI implementation to the organ world in 1987 at the National Association of Music Merchants Trade Show in Chicago. He was associated with the Rodgers Organ Company for over 30 years and presently is an artist for the Allen organ Company.
ARCA is grateful for the long-time, very generous support and sponsorship gift of Kears and Karen Pollock underwriting this 20th Anniversary celebration of the first Wurlitzer organ concert featuring the legendary Jonas Nordwall.
This will be an unforgettable afternoon of pinnacle theatre organ artistry with Jonas Nordwall. Join us to experience this extraordinary artist at the newly renovated McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer as we celebrate its 20th Birthday – including a champagne toast at the wine and cheese reception from 4 to 6 PM in the Red Brick Gallery for the closing of the exhibit of Rafi and Klee – INTERWOVEN: The Art of Growth and Connection!
Tickets are Adults $25, Members $20, Students $5.
Call to Reserve at 724-659-3153 and pay by cash or check at the door.
Or Buy Online Here. Doors open at 1:30 PM.
Immediately following the concert, the audience is invited to the Red Brick Gallery for a Wurlitzer Birthday Party – with a Champagne toast and sweet treats from The Crow’s Cupboard at the wine and cheese reception from 4 to 6 PM in the Upstairs Gallery with the exhibit of Rafi and Klee – Interwoven: The Art of Growth and Connection featuring the work of Rafi Perez, Art & Klee Angelie, Jewelry.
The exhibit weaves together the strength of metal, the vibrancy of paint, and the presence of sculpture. Interwoven: The Art of Growth and Connection brings together the work of Rafi Perez and Klee Angelie in a celebration of resilience, creativity, and the ties that bind us as human beings.
Perez’s bold paintings and sculptures reflect the humor, chaos, and beauty of the human condition, embracing imperfection as part of the story. Angelie’s hammer-forged jewelry transforms raw metal and natural stones into flowing, organic forms that embody both strength and delicacy.
Together, their works create a space where art becomes more than an object—it becomes a reflection of growth, healing, and connection.
Also shop for special gifts for your loved ones – and yourself! – in the first floor Gift Shop. The Red Brick Gallery is located at 17 Main Street in Foxburg. The 2025 season Gallery Hours are Fridays 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM, Saturdays 11:00 PM –7:00 PM, and Sundays 12:00 noon – 5:00 PM.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Internationally renowned virtuoso organist, Jonas Nordwall, is equally skilled in both classical and modern/popular schools of musical performance. For over a half century he has toured the world presenting concerts and workshops in churches and performing arts centers. He has performed in Japan, Europe, China and has made several tours of Australia. In 1999, he was both an adjudicator and recitalist for the Swiss International Organ Competition in Geneva, Switzerland.
Nordwall has over 25 highly acclaimed recordings on many labels. His recordings are frequently heard on the internationally syndicated radio show, “Pipedreams”. He is the only American organist to play a solo concert at the famed Sydney Town Hall for an audience over 2,000, which was also broadcast throughout the South Pacific by the Australian Broadcasting Company. His national television broadcasts include NBC’s “Today Show” and the ABC’s “Good Morning Australia”.
A Portland, Oregon native, Nordwall’s first musical studies began at age 4 on the accordion. Besides Portland teachers Joe Parente and Eileen Hagen, he tutored with Charles Magnante and Anthony Galla-Rini. At the age of 16, Nordwall performed for King Gustav Adolf during a tour of Sweden.
His studies expanded to piano and organ at age 10 with Portland teacher, Goldie Pos. Nordwall graduated with a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Portland, where his piano, organ and orchestration studies were with Arthur Hitchcock. Hitchcock was the pianist and organist for 20th Century Fox Studios from 1935 to 1950 in addition to teaching at Los Angeles colleges. Additional classical organ studies were with three of the twentieth century’s finest organists – Frederick Geoghegan, the English/Canadian virtuoso, Richard Ellsasser, the American virtuoso and Richard Purvis, the eminent organist-composer of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral.
Nordwall has been a professional church musician since high school. He has served as the organist for Portland’s First United Methodist Church since 1971 and is presently the Artistic Director of Music. There he oversees one of the finest music ministries in the United States. He has played for many international church gatherings, an accompanist for the American Choral Directors Association conventions, and performed for several regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists.
As the organist for the Oregon Symphony Orchestra during the tenure of Maestro James DePriest, Nordwall was a featured soloist for several concerts and has recorded with the orchestra on the Delos label. Other orchestral appearances include the Vancouver, BC Symphony Orchestra, Portland Festival and Chamber Orchestras, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver, Washington, Symphony Orchestra, San Jose Symphony Orchestra, Peter Britt Music Festival, Cascade Music Festival and the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra (Bellingham, WA).
Nordwall is among the most respected theatre organists. During college he had the rare opportunity to be the organist at the Paramount and Oriental Theaters in Portland. For many years he was the Senior Staff Organist for the legendary Organ Grinder Corporation, with large Wurlitzer pipe organs in lavish restaurants in Portland and Denver. In 1987 the American Theatre Organ Society named him Organist of the Year and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2022. He directs the ATOS Summer Youth Adventure, the ATOS version of the AGO Pipe Organ Encounter young organist program.
In addition to his musical performances, Nordwall has been a major influence in the later 20th century design and manufacturing of both pipe and electronic organs. He was associated with the Rodgers Organ Company for over 30 years and presently is an artist for the Allen organ Company. He introduced MIDI implementation to the organ world in 1987 at the National Association of Music Merchants Trade Show in Chicago.
His performances and recordings have rave reviews. Recent reviews stated “Nordwall is a grand master of the organ” and “ . . if more organ concerts were as carefully programmed and excellently performed, the organ would again be at the fore-front of the musical public.”
ARCA’s Founding & First Wurlitzer Concert
For hundreds of years the scenic allure of the Allegheny-Clarion River Valley has attracted settlers whose foresight established the business and social structure of the towns of Foxburg and Emlenton. Since the mid-19th century, arts and entertainment were brought to the valley to enrich the community – whether touring variety shows and musicians, silent movies or Emlenton Civic Club presentations.
When Dr. Arthur Steffee and his late wife Patricia began refurbishing the Fox estate and establishing Foxburg businesses in the late nineties and early millennium, they envisioned the arts as a hub of community and cultural life – drawing people to appreciate the refreshment of the arts in this stunningly picturesque valley. Hailing from Cleveland, they had fond memories of going to Blossom Music Center, the Cleveland Orchestra’s summer home, where the commingling of nature’s splendor and music’s soaring inspiration were an idyllic combination. They believed that the Allegheny River Valley deserved to have the same thing.
Inspired by their vision, seventeen years ago a stalwart group of local visionaries and culture lovers, educators and artists came together and began devoting their time, energy and resources to make their dream of creating a thriving arts center on the banks of the beautiful Allegheny River in Foxburg a reality.
The founding Board of Directors in 2005 established the non-profit organization, Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts, and began creating a center for arts and education and, since then, tens of thousands of people have enjoyed concerts, festivals, events and art gallery openings. ARCA has become the cultural jewel of the region.
Early ARCA Board members included Jae Ann Brown and Andor Paposi-Jobb, Lou and Rose Kalinowsky, Arch and Roberta Newton, Sue and Gerald Peairs, Tom and Margo Rudd, Arthur and Patricia Steffee, Bob and Karen Watson, Bud Irwin, Randy Silvis and Adam and Ann Weiss (Adam also serving as ARCA’s first Executive Director). They were joined soon thereafter by Mike and Sally Vereb, Tom and Nancy Hovis and Ron and Connie Hambrick Rennard.
ARCA’s current Board of Directors includes Marybeth Hinds Steffee, Nancy and Tom Hovis, Kurt and Joanne Crosbie, Kathy Soroka, Barbara Bott, Jack and Millie Armant, Pat and Bob Beran, Dennis Keyes, Doug Bell, Shannon Daniel, Jim and Lydia Crooks and Melissa Gottschalk. John Soroka is Executive Director.
From the beginning, the generosity and hard work of these Board members and volunteers joining their ranks, established the cornerstone of ARCA; they not only developed the cultural offerings but also refurbished the concert venue itself. The Fox family had built Lincoln Hall as a concert and community venue which opened in 1909 on the second floor of The Foxburg Free Library; however, it had long since been used as a medical center – broken up with small cubicles and a dropped ceiling.
According to founding Board member, Jae Brown, when Arthur Steffee first threw open the doors to show the Board the space, they were shocked and “gobsmacked… it was a debris-logged and entirely impassable ‘warren’ of partially deconstructed office space that precluded any passage past the foyer at the front door. It seemed impossible, looking back, but in a reasonable amount of time what had seemed an irretrievable space was redeemed by the vision and hard physical labor of many.”
During the reconstruction, an original hand painted oil painting of the river, originally used as a curtain, was found rolled up under the stage. Carefully conserved by Andor Jobb, who lightly cleansed the surface and reinforced the backing using rabbit glue, the painting now serves as Lincoln Hall’s stage backdrop. A gift of Dr. Arthur and Patricia Steffee, a beautiful seven-foot Steinway grand piano graces its stage. Noted for its intimacy and crystalline acoustics, the hall is a favorite of instrumentalists, such as the Alexander String Quartet and Members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
As Lincoln Hall was being renovated, considerable efforts ensued to move and install the 1929 Wurlitzer Theater Organ, which the Steffees had purchased from Paul McKissick. Over eleven years McKissick had lovingly restored this treasure, which originally had been installed in Cleveland’s Uptown Theater and played to accompany silent movies. Dubbed the Mighty McKissick Wurlitzer, the theatre organ is one of only 24 created in its style and size.
Beginning in September 2005, Paul McKissick began putting the pipes in specially built boxes to prepare for their move to Foxburg. Over the next months, Dr. Steffee moved the boxes of pipes using a horse trailer at times with the assistance of Board member Thomas Hovis, to ease loading and unloading. For the next year Paul personally, painstakingly installed the organ in its new home.
It was determined that ARCA would inaugurate its first performance season in the elegantly refurbished Lincoln Hall on October 5 and 6, 2006 with concerts on the Mighty McKissick Wurlitzer performed by Scott Foppiano.
The first non-organ concert, a classical cabaret entitled “Shall We Gather By the River”, was performed by Katherine Soroka and Friends on November 4, 2006 with Raymond Blackwell, piano, and PSO musicians, Jennifer Orchard, violin, and Mikhail Istomin, cello.
Twenty years later, ARCA is the premiere fine arts center in northwestern Pennsylvania, having touched the lives of thousands of audience members from a 7-county region with more than 400 concerts and 90 visiting artist exhibits at the Red Brick Gallery – and reached thousands of students in the A-C Valley Schools through educational residencies.
The McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer
During the hey-day of silent films between the mid teens and late 1920’s, the variety of entertainment venues across this country centered around vaudeville, silent movies, community sing-a-longs, and other live stage productions in movie palaces in every town, large or small. Thousands of movie houses depended on live musical accompaniment for their silent movies, and while some smaller houses merely had pianos, the vast majority had theatre pipe organs. While these wonderful instruments were not inexpensive, even back then, it was far more affordable to have a “Mighty Wurlitzer” with a few house organists on staff than to pay for a full orchestra or even modest band to perform in the orchestra pit every day.
These organs became wildly popular and several different manufacturers jumped on the band-wagon to join the Wurlitzer company in order to have an organ in every movie house in the land. These organs are also known as “Unit Orchestras” as they can emulate many different sounds from the orchestra – from pipe organ violins to flutes, oboes, trumpets, clarinets, and so on. Also unique to theatre pipe organs was the inclusion of tuned percussions such as chimes, marimbas, pianos, glockenspiels, xylophones, vibraphones, etc. Even a set of tuned sleigh bells was included in the more expensive models. In order to create that special mood for the silents, all sorts of sound effects and traps were also included. Items such as birdcalls, boat whistles, auto horns, doorbells, crashes and thunder, drums, tambourines, castanets, cymbals, and gongs were just some of the “toy counter” items available to the organist. The Wurlitzer organ in Lincoln Hall is one of the best examples of this class of theatre organ.
ARCA’s Wurlitzer contains seventeen ranks of pipes and is characterized by a balanced blend of unmistakeable Wurlitzer ‘sounds”. Built in 1928 at the Wurlitzer Organ factory in North Tonawanda outside of Buffalo and numbered OPUS 1989, the organ originally was installed in Cleveland’s Uptown Theatre. It was played for several years accompanying silent movies. With the end of the silent film era it was subsequently purchased by Richard Wheeler, a Cleveland organist, and remained in his home until Wheeler passed. Paul McKissick purchased it from the Haynes Company in North Canton, Ohio, where it had been in storage.
Paul lovingly and painstakingly rebuilt the instrument over eleven years and in 1999 the restored Wulrtlizer was installed in McKissick’s garage at their home in Lake Latonka near Mercer, PA. The organ became known as the Latona Pipes, and was played in annual benefits concerts to raise money for the DeBence Museum in Franklin. Dr. Arthur and Patricia Steffee attended one of the concerts. When Paul decided to downsize and was seeking a place for the Wurtlizer for the next generation, Dr. Arthur and Patricia Steffee, ARCA’s founders, purchased it to enhance the newly restored Lincoln Hall, on the second floor of the Foxburg Free Library.
Its seventeen ranks of pipes translate to 60 notes per voice or rank, more than 1200 pipes and 6,000 moving parts to make the Wurlitzer sound. Only the relay and computer are not authentic or vintage parts on the organ. The installation included one of Wurlitzer’s most unique features, the decorative ‘Toy Shelf’ of miniature instruments, which are displayed in a rear balcony in Lincoln Hall and are all powered by the organ. The marimba was added and all the associated drums, cymbals, bells and automatic piano produce a balanced blend of unmistakable Mighty Wurlitzer sounds.
ARCA audiences have enjoyed twenty years of glorious music making on the McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer by some of the worlds greatest theatre organists – including David Wickerham, Brent Valliant, Martin Ellis, Walt Strony, Scott Foppiano, Donna Parker, Jelani Eddington and Ken Double. Jason Wiles is ARCA’s organ technician, maintaining and tuning the organ for each concert and conducting the major restoration project in 2024 and 2025, with its debut on Sunday, June 1, 2025.
ARRIVE EARLY & EXPLORE FOXBURG!
Before the concert, enjoy a brisk walk along the Allegheny River trail or have lunch at the Allegheny Grillein their dining room overlooking the Allegheny River.
Or for more casual fare, at Foxburg Pizza with salads, sandwiches and pizza.
Be sure to save time to enjoy a wine tasting in the newly renovated Foxburg Wine Cellars or enjoy a bottle of wine on the beautiful patio on a warm November day – or do some early Christmas shopping for stocking stuffers – like their deliciously robust River Queen.
Enjoy ARCA’s 20th Anniversary Wurlitzer weekend extending your stay with an overnight in Foxburg in the elegantly renovated Foxburg Inn where every room has a river view and the river deck gives you a panoramic experience of the the beautiful Allegheny-Clarion River Valley.
