Sunday was fun: church service in the morning, and in the evening we had an inaugural concert for the newly finished First Baptist DC organ project, and in between we visited the National Geographic Museum to see A New Age of Exploration, an exhibit celebrating NatGeo’s 125th anniversary.

I noticed a few mentions of the Philippines in the displays: an 1898 cover about the islands shortly before the Spanish-American War, and a 1922 atlas marking the Philippines as a US territory.

We also played a few augmented reality Kinect games, exercising the right to “bear arms,” so to speak.

Back at church, the new organ was wondrous, rich and full in tone, with a pair of trompet en chamades in the English and French styles, and a variety of effects like a tinkling zimbelstern, harp, and convent bell. Our organist Dr Lon Schreiber of course got a standing ovation.

It’s going to be great singing under those pipes every Sunday. Here’s a video of Lon playing some Franck on the new organ before the recital:

Organ recital program in this tweet, InTowner story on the recital, more about the church’s organ project, the builders’ “Opus 2795” page on Austin Organs’s site, and my photos of the organ’s construction.