There are a lot of churches in Cleveland (3647 by one recent count), and a lot of those churches have pipe organs. When the Organ Historical Society held their annual convention here in 2009, the title of their convention publication was lifted from the advertising of Cleveland organ maker Walter Holtcamp: "Cleveland: A Town Of Good Organs, A Profitable Place to Visit".
Due to factors including population loss, shrinking congregations, competition from electronic instruments, and the cost and technical challenges of maintaining traditional pipe organs, many of these instruments have fallen into disuse and disrepair. As churches close, organs are decommissioned, scrapped, or simply thrown in the dumpster. In too many instances, if you go to a neighborhood church to listen to organ music, you’ll hear... crickets.
"Organ Crickets" (reclaimed organ pipes, piezo transducers, microcontroller-synthesized sound) is an audio sculpture and a tribute to these instruments of worship, and to the rich history of organ making in Cleveland.
Organ Crickets was shown at Cleveland's Waterloo Arts Gallery in January/February of 2024, in conjunction with Xia Gao's "Settling/Unsettling, Daydream of Jiangnan" show.