A tricentennial organ for Trinity Church
Trinity Church has been a beacon on the Newport horizon for the past 299 years, a prominent landmark for mariners, and is the oldest surviving church building in Newport.
Countless people have worshipped in our historic building, and the Church is still a center for present day worship services– both on Sundays, and for the many passages in people’s lives that are observed with corporate worship – baptisms, weddings and funerals. In many ways, our organ is the voice of the Parish.
Sponsor and Organ Pipe!
Gold Façade Pipe - $5,000
- Dedication on Commemorative Plaque
- Dedication Name encased inside the Organ.
- Gift recognition in printed church materials
- Invitation to our Inaugural Organ Recital
Gold façade pipes are the organ’s most visible, shaping its principal sound while enhancing beauty.
Large Organ Pipe - $1,675
- Dedication Name encased inside the Organ
- Gift recognition in printed church materials
- Invitation to Inaugural Organ Recital
- Selection of Pipe & Note, Hymn request after install
Large organ pipes provide depth, power, and foundation, anchoring the organ’s sound.
Medium Organ Pipe - $1000
- Dedication Name encased inside the Organ
- Gift recognition in printed church materials
- Hymn request and dedication after install
- Invitation to Inaugural Organ Recital
Medium pipes form the organ’s warm, rich core sound that supports singing and melody.
Small Organ Pipe - $300
- Dedication Name encased inside the Organ
- Gift recognition in printed church materials
- Invitation to the Inaugural Organ Recital
The smallest organ pipes add brilliance, clarity, and shimmer, helping melodies shine.
Donate to Dedicate - $100
Before the new organ is installed, a list of names will be placed inside the organ. Honor yourself or a loved one as part of Trinity Church Newport’s history, waiting to be discovered by future generations.
Watch the presentation made by Charles Nazarian to Trinity Church on Sunday, April 26, 2026. Charles is the architectural designer at Fisk, Inc and explains the process and design for our Opus 170 organ.
The organ in Trinity Church has the distinction of being the first organ shipped to America from Europe intended for use in church services. (New England Puritans were not fond of organs, calling them “the Devil’s box of whistles!”) Bishop George Berkeley commissioned the noted London organbuilder Richard Bridge to build our instrument, and sent it as a gift to the Trinity Congregation in 1733. Although the organ has been enlarged and rebuilt many times over 300 years, we retain the original wooden case, the three carved crowns which adorn the façade, and a few dozen original pipes.
The organ was constantly rebuilt in the 19th & 20th Centuries.
1846 – Henry Erben
1880 – Hook and Hastings
1902 – rebuilt, enlarged, electrified by Hook and Hastings
1929 – new organ, E.M. Skinner
1972 – mostly new organ – Wicks
The current organ is an unhappy marriage of pipes from 1929 and 1972, along with many electronic voices and a console we bought second-hand in 2002 as a stop-gap measure. This instrument was never satisfactory, and continual electrical problems have created havoc when the organ will not play. We endured several services without any organ in Spring of 2024, and a recent electronic failure during the week leading up to Easter of 2025 was hair-raising.
In the summer of 2024 an Organ Committee was established to explore the idea of replacing the current organ. Six interested members of the Congregation and Choir volunteered to work together. We have visited 10 examples of instruments from five noted American builders, and invited these organbuilders to visit Trinity to help us imagine the ideal organ that can meet our needs.
To date we have received pledges of support for $850,000 from 40 choir members and interested friends of music, and a recent grant of $500,000 from the McBean foundation brings us to $1.35 million.
The most attractive bid we received is from the Fisk Organ Co of Gloucester MA – whose estimated cost is $1.55 million, and with expected structural needs of the balcony, and electrical upgrades for the organ and livestream, we hope to raise $2 million dollars.
Because of a cancelled contract from a church in London, Fisk Organ Co could begin building our organ in the Fall of 2025, and deliver it for installation in the Fall of 2026, in the midst of our 300th Anniversary Year. The final voicing would be finished for Easter of 2027. (Other builders could not deliver until 2028–2030).
We would love to celebrate our next hundred years with a new instrument as carefully and beautifully constructed as our historic church building. Such an organ would be used in Sunday Worship, and for the celebrations of life for the many Newporters whose families have called Trinity their Church home for centuries. The new organ will certainly be a major enhancement for our all-encompassing community concert series.
