First Presbyterian Church, Orlando Florida announces search for Full Time Organist/Accompanist. First Presbyterian Church is a thriving 3500 member congregation, located in beautiful downtown Orlando, with a strong heritage of great sacred music - www.fpco.org The FPCO Organist will provide organ and piano music for Traditional Worship services and other church events such as weddings, funerals and other special occasions. This position will also act as the primary accompanist, accompanying for +choral rehearsals, vocal and instrumental ensembles, and other choral events as needed. Additional service playing responsibilities include, but are not limited to, Advent services, Holy Week services, funerals, and occasional concerts. Limited and agreed upon number of funerals is included in responsibilities under salary--extra pay is agreed upon if allotment is exceeded. The FPCO Organist has the right of first refusal to play all weddings - weddings are additional compensation and are frequent. Teaching privileges through the Orlando Community School of the Arts (on-site at FPCO) is also possible.
Qualifications: A Bachelor's Degree in Music (Organ emphasis) is  recommended, or extensive proven experience in the field, with 3-5 years of church music experience. While the organist has no responsibility for the contemporary worship services at FPCO, a healthy understanding of and respect of all worship formats is essential. A knowledge and passion for liturgical and non-liturgical worship music is critical, along with the ability to sight-read high level classical choral music, including open score notation and the ability to transpose as necessary. The successful candidate will have the ability to work in a team-based environment with staff, choir members, instrumentalists and other volunteers, and will have excellent time management and communication skills. This position reports to the Minister of Worship.
Information on the Organ:
The Allen organ at FPCO is a unique combination of ancient organ building techniques and modern, digital technology. Patterned after the French Symphonic and American Classic styles, this instrument is capable of playing the most demanding literature from the softest service music to the glorious concert repertoire. Equally at home in worship, solo, choral accompaniment, or to a complement full orchestra, the organ at FPCO dates from 1955, originally built by the Moller Company of Hagerstown, MD. Many of its best pipes and wind chests were re-utilized and new pipes from Northern Ireland, Czechoslovakia, as well as new pipes and chests from the Jim Lauck workshop in Michigan have been added. There are 36 ranks of pipes numbering 2,196 individual pipes. This is supplemented by a vast array of digital voices which are sampled pipe stops from many of the finest organs in the world, including 3 ranks of Arp Schnitzger diapasons dating from the time of J.S. Bach. This entire apparatus is controlled by a new 4 Manual Custom Allen Renaissance™ console. Added together, the organ speaks with the equivalent of 163 ranks of pipes, making it one of the largest instruments in Florida! An unusual feature of this organ is the “floating” string division, which is playable from any manual and pedals. Patterned after the famed Skinner string sections in many of their larger installations, it speaks from either the front or rear of the church.