Behind the Music October 03, 2025

Awakening the sleeping giant of Symphony Hall

When it was built, Symphony Hall was a revolution in concert hall construction: everything about the way the hall was constructed was meant to elicit perfect acoustics, from the very the material of the seats to the massive pipe organ that looms over everything. In the 2025-26 season, that organ will take a starring role in the celebrations of the hall's 125th birthday. Look back at how and when the organ took shape in the hall.

When you come into Symphony Hall, it’s hard to miss, yet easy to ignore; the gold pipes gleam high above the stage, omnipresent yet so often silent. Simultaneously imposing, unmissable, and part of the literal furniture, It’s the hall’s Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ.

Behind that façade sitting high above the stage lies a sonic powerhouse: 4,314 pipes organized into 75 ranks (sets of pipes that all produce specific tones), 5 divisions, and an awe-inspiring range that’s meant to imitate violins, flutes, trumpets, and even the human voice.

Organist Olivier Latry performs Michael Gandolfi's "Ascending Light" during the 2014-2015 season.

Sometimes called the “king of instruments and instrument of kings,” versions of organs have been around since ancient times, evolving from the smaller piped instrument called a “hydraulis” that existed in third century B.C.E. in Egypt.

The story of Symphony Hall’s organ is a bit more modern: it begins 125 years ago in 1900 when Boston’s George S. Hutchings built the original electrically keyed 62-rank organ into a chamber measuring 12 feet deep and 40 feet tall.

Organist E. Power Biggs and designer G. Donald Harrison viewing the Symphony Hall organ pipes in production at the Aeolian-Skinner plant. *Photographer unknown*

Although state of the art for its day, the Hutchings organ fell out of favor by the mid-20th century. In 1949, G. Donald Harrison of Aeolian-Skinner transformed the instrument into an "American Classic," recycling 60% of the original pipes and introducing hundreds more for brighter colors.

Another major refurbishments followed: After decades of use, in 2003 Connecticut-based organ specialists Foley-Baker, Inc. gave it a full makeover, adding two new 32-foot stops, a redesigned console, and long-missing Principal pipes. Every one of its thousands of pipes was carefully taken out of its home and laid on the floor of Symphony Hall, polished or replaced, and reinstalled, along with new modern digital controls, MIDI capability, and a portable console.

Organ pipes laid out on the floor of Symphony Hall, 2003. *Peter Vanderwarker*

The organ's updated console, 2024. Robert Torres

Today, it ranks (pun intended) among the most technically advanced concert hall organs in the world. Whether whispering like a breeze or blasting like a thunderclap, this musical machine turns the entire hall into an instrument.

Think of those iconic organ moments: Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, the spooky opening of Phantom of the Opera, or that thunderous sound in every great haunted house scene. This season, organist James McVinnie will awaken the sleeping giant with a solo program blending the music performed in that first season of Symphony Hall in 1900 with today's new music. On Oct. 31, celebrate the centennial of the release of Rupert Julian’s 1925 silent film classic The Phantom of the Opera with live organ accompaniment, just as the audiences in the 1920's would have experienced it.

When the organ speaks, you don’t just hear it. You feel it.