‘Music from heaven’: Fort Worth church celebrates 30 years of Cliburn Organ

Kenyon Smith is quite familiar with pipe organs. 

He grew up listening to the brassy tunes his father, a church organist, used to play regularly until his death two years ago. 

Since then, Kenyon and his wife, Dorothy, searched for ways to introduce their kids to the type of music sacred to their family history and Christian faith. One late September Sunday evening, the opportunity came. 

In the pews near the front of Broadway Baptist Church, the Smiths fully immersed themselves into the melodies pouring out of the metal pipes and reverberating throughout the sanctuary.

Dorothy held one of their wiggly kids in one arm and a music program in the other. Another child sat in Kenyon’s lap. In between the couple sat their oldest, attentively listening to the symphony of rich organ notes blended with her parents’ melodic voices as they sang timeless hymns.

“O God beyond all praising,

We worship you today

And sing the love amazing

That songs cannot repay”

Dorothy felt the room’s energy — not only from the organ, but also through the voices of others singing around her. 

“There’s just such a power that comes from singing with a whole bunch of other Christian believers about Jesus Christ and about our faith, and there’s not much stronger that you can get than feeling like there’s all these people here who all unified in the same goal,” she said.

The Smiths were one of several families in attendance at Broadway Baptist Church on Sept. 27 for a Hymn Festival celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn Organ. 

The organ is the largest in Texas with roughly 10,615 pipes, said Bradley Reznicek, organist at Broadway Baptist Church for the past five years. The instrument was crafted exclusively for the church by renowned Canadian instrument company Casavant Frères for $2.5 million. The church and its congregants paid for most of the project.

The night of harmony gave the Smiths a chance to experience a piece of Fort Worth history and reconnect with their own roots. 

“It felt like he was here again,” Kenyon said, referring to his father. 

That night’s Hymn Festival was the first of three free events the Near Southside church is hosting in honor of the organ’s anniversary. The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will perform at the church on Oct. 16, and on Oct. 25 Broadway Baptist will host a solo recital.

If you go

What: Organ & Orchestra: Symphonic Power Meets Organ Brilliance 

When: 7:30-9:30 p.m. Oct. 16

Where: Broadway Baptist Church, 305 W. Broadway Ave., Fort Worth

Admission: Free

What: Solo recital: One Performer, An Entire World of Sound

When: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 25

Where: Broadway Baptist Church, 305 W. Broadway Ave., Fort Worth

Admission: Free

Van Cliburn leads charge for new organ

Longtime organist Albert L. Travis began playing at Broadway in the summer of 1978. When he got there, the original 1952 organ’s pipes were already worse for wear. 

“There were many pipes in the organ that had been falling over because of the heat,” Travis said. 

Conversations about replacing the organ started to commence by the 1980s. The instrument was named after Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, a dedicated Broadway Baptist congregant, arts philanthropist and noted musician perhaps better known as the mother and principal teacher of Van Cliburn — one of the world’s most celebrated pianists and namesake of Fort Worth’s prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. 

The Cliburns, described by Travis as “staunch Baptists,” wanted to build an organ that would be significant for the entire community.

To play the Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn Organ is “the dream of a lifetime for organists,” Travis said — including his own. 

“It’s like having an orchestra at your fingertips,” Travis said. 

Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn died at 97 on Aug. 3, 1994 — two years before the organ’s completion. She commissioned 14 orchestral works for Broadway Baptist, according to a church program from when the organ was installed. 

There is a misconception that Van Cliburn donated the entire organ, but it’s not true, Reznicek said. The pianist only made a substantial donation, he added. 

A portion of the Cliburn Organ debuted to congregants in April 1995 before the instrument was completed the following year. Van Clibun told KXAS-TV, now NBC 5 DFW, at the initial unveiling that he was happy to hear the instrument.

“I know she was so thrilled to be thought of, and the thought was everything,” he said of his late mother.

The organ’s official dedication on Oct. 14, 1996, featured five days of concerts and services. 

The instrument’s debut marked what would have been Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn’s 100th birthday. Van Cliburn died at 78 in 2013.

Quiet whispers and grandiose music

Leading God’s people in song felt like a fitting way to start the organ’s anniversary celebrations, Reznicek told the crowd.

He pulled out all the stops that late September evening — literally and figuratively. The stop knobs on each side of the console allows air to travel to a specific set of pipes inside the organ, which each carry their own specific set of sounds.

As his fingers danced across the keyboard and his feet pattered the pedalboard below, wind released from the pipes filled the room with a euphonic mix of thunderous chords and whispers. 

Sitting on that organ bench marked a full-circle moment for the organist. 

Reznicek once sat in one of the church’s pews as a college music student attending one of the first Cliburn Organ concerts. The minute he heard Travis play those first keys, his life changed forever.

“To hear an organ like this, where you could have the quiet whisper, and then just get this grandiose sound, I find it very thrilling,” he said.

Reznicek told himself after the performance that he would one day be the organist at Broadway Baptist Church. 

He spent years learning from Travis before the longtime organist retired in 2019 after 41 years. 

When the organ arrived at the Fort Worth church, it was unlike anything the then-56-year-old Travis had ever experienced. As a teenager, thinking about spending his life as an organist, he never imagined he would get to play an organ so grand.

After the new organ was installed, the church began hosting Hymn Festivals, for all to hear the sounds of the new instrument. 

“The first Sunday and the first few concerts were just like music from heaven,” Travis said. 

‘In your soul’

Looking to expand the organ’s reach to more people in the community, Broadway congregant Roseann Harris helped launch InspireArts in 2022. The group, which operates under the church’s nonprofit, raises funds to maintain the instrument, host concerts and create educational programming for students.

“Most people don’t have an opportunity to hear an organ of that quality and that sound,” Harris said. “It’s just one of those things that reaches deep down in your soul.”

Before the night of the Hymn Festival came to a close, there was one final act — “Toccata on MARION,” or “Toccata On Rejoice Ye Pure In Heart,” written by Travis himself.

Reznicek’s fingertips gracefully glided along the keyboard as fluttering notes moved from out of the pipes, filling the sanctuary.

Just a few pews behind the Smiths was Travis, listening to his student play the energetic organ solo he wrote. 

Attendees held their breath as the pipe organ bellowed out air, lining the room with layers of sound. 

Then, the room exhaled, just as the organ began to sing. 

Marissa Greene is the faith and fellowships editor at the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at [email protected].

David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected].

The Fort Worth Report’s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.