Sunday, February 1, 2026
We have lots of season tickets, which are great because you can change dates when you need to. At the Phipps, you can also change shows if you need to. When we scheduled all of our travel for the next few months, we had to move quite a few dates to get everything to fit. We had not originally chosen to attend the organ concert today, but it fit when something else didn’t, so off we went.
It was snowing and messy when we went. When we switched our tickets a few weeks ago, the only two seats together were in the back row, right in the middle. We sat in our seats and chatted a moment with the people next to us. When we sat down at 1:52, we four were the only people in the audience. It was messy out, but really not bad at all. We came from another state! A bunch of people arrived in the last moments, but more than half of the house was empty. Weird.
The organist was Donnie Rankin, from Ohio. I was surprised that they had hired someone from an airplane ride away. Do we not have local organists? He thanked the people that picked him up from the airport and fed him. He said it was odd to be flying into Minneapolis at such a time, but now he was safely over the border. Sadly true. He played the varied program very well. He had a piece of notebook paper that he said he found in the green room that he had written the order of songs on. He checked his watch several times and said he was afraid he had underprogrammed. He just thought up some things he knew (he used no music all day) and played them. The first half was an hour. We intermished. I suggested we move down to the fourth row, because there were only two people in the row and I thought the overhang over our row was dampening the sound.
Indeed it was! No complaints about the first half, but the second half sounded way better. Donnie just talked to us about the songs and about his life and about movies and about whatever he thought of. He said we were a laid-back audience, and he was really enjoying us. I think the feeling was mutual. I am glad we got switched to this concert. Win.