Halloween Organ Pump Tradition Continues to Treat Oberlin After More Than Three Decades

Just before midnight on the Friday of Halloweekend, Finney Chapel is filled with an energy unlike any other night of the semester. The pews erupt with echoing shouts as the last of cellophane skirts and blow-up dinosaur costumes attempt to shuffle into their seats. All slowly turn to face the stage. The lights begin to dim, and the first chords of Organ Pump ring out to thunderous applause. “Hopefully, you can hear the music,” Associate Professor of Organ Jonathan Moyer chuckled. Moyer said that the first Organ Pump was a rather formal ordeal that started in the ’90s, when Organ Performance major Erik Suter, OC ’95, and his friend came up with the idea of an all-organ concert. “They just wanted to play more,” Moyer said. “They wanted to perform more, and they thought it would be fun for students if they did a midnight concert.” Since then, Organ Pump has taken on a life of its own.

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