Restoration efforts breath new life into historic pipe organ that sat silent for decades

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) - While most students at Denfeld High School are used to hearing pianos in the music room, there’s a much bigger instrument hiding in plain sight.

Inside the school’s historic auditorium sits a genuine pipe organ, once played by world-renowned artists and used for major community events.

But not a single note has been heard in decades.

The pipes are tucked away throughout the walls of this historic space and now, a restoration effort is tuning up to bring them back to life.

Carol Donahue is a former organist, and she says “my question always is what would we do without music? You know, it would be really an empty world, I believe.”

Donahue reminisces on the time she played this organ at Denfeld in 1965, before water damage and time rendered it silent.