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4:56 am
Wed November 28, 2012

Baking Without Flour For The Holidays

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Credit Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
Credit Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
Credit Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
Credit Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
Credit Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
Credit Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
Credit Nicole Spiridakis for NPR
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By editor

Originally published on Mon December 3, 2012 8:54 am

The holidays come in on a rush of cookies and snow (if you are so lucky) and parties and lists, and suddenly it's Jan. 1 and we're wiping the crumbs away and wondering where the year went. I'm currently tiptoeing into the season, my brain still basking in Indian summer despite the rain slated to descend on San Francisco in the coming weeks. "Ready" or not, the time is upon us.

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Arts
4:15 pm
Tue November 27, 2012

The Bourgeois Pig

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Arts
4:08 pm
Tue November 27, 2012

Christmas City Follies XIII - Part 1

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Arts
3:54 pm
Tue November 27, 2012

Paul Willistein reviews "Lincoln"

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Author Interviews
3:17 pm
Tue November 27, 2012

'The Last Refuge': Yemen, Al-Qaida And The U.S.

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Credit W.W. Norton & Co.
Credit Jeff Taylor / W.W. Norton & Co.
Gregory Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen, is a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He is the co-founder of Waq al-Waq: Islam and Insurgency in Yemen Blog.
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By editor

Originally published on Tue November 27, 2012 3:47 pm

In December 2009 a would-be terrorist boarded a plane for Detroit with a bomb in his underwear. While the explosive failed to properly ignite and the man was arrested upon landing, the ensuing investigation revealed the bomb in question had been made by al-Qaida leaders in Yemen.

This attempted act of terrorism heralded both the small Arabian country's re-emergence into the international consciousness as a refuge for al-Qaida and the ascendance of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), developments that have grown only more pronounced since.

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Around the Nation
2:34 pm
Tue November 27, 2012

Kennedy Center's New Organ No Longer A Pipe Dream

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Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
After years of waiting, the Kennedy Center has a new symphonic organ replacing its old Filene organ. The $2 million project will culminate in the organ's debut on Nov. 27. William Neil (left), the National Symphony Orchestra organist, speaks with NSO Assistant Conductor Ankush Kumar Bahl (center) during the organ's test with the orchestra on Oct. 18.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Neil plays the organ while organ consultant Jeff Weiler pushes and pulls stops during the test. Building the organ took nearly two years, plus more than three months for installation.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
The organ console and concert hall as seen through the pipes of the organ chamber set behind the orchestra. The new organ boasts 1,000 more pipes than the previous one — nearly 5,000 pipes in total.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Jacquelin Rochette, artistic director of Casavant Bros., gives a tour of the labyrinthine organ chamber. The Montreal-based company was founded in 1879 and specializes in building, renovating and installing pipe organs.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Pipes inside the organ chamber range from five-eighths of an inch to 32 feet long, with varying shapes and diameters. Each pipe is meticulously tuned to create the organ's unique tonality.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
The cluster of pipes in the center are the only ones that remain from the old Filene Great Organ, installed in 1972.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Weiler pulls on the "Filene" stop, named after Catherine Filene Shouse, the donor of the first Kennedy Center organ dismantled earlier this year. The wooden console has 103 stops, which are responsible for balancing the treble and bass — the lows and highs of each pipe.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Bahl (left) speaks with Neil (center) and Weiler about the organ's test performance with the orchestra on Oct. 18. After six weeks of toning and tuning, the team just needed to make a few final refinements. "We had to tone it down today. We heard too much organ," said Weiler. "It's much easier to make an organ softer than louder, but the power is there."
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
A concert hall organ has to have the right balance — powerful enough to be heard over the orchestra and chorus, but blending in like any another instrument.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Rochette stands along a narrow passageway deep inside the organ chamber.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
After years of waiting, the Kennedy Center has a new symphonic organ replacing its old organ installed in 1972. The $2 million project will culminate in the organ's debut on Nov. 27. William Neil (left), the National Symphony Orchestra organist, speaks with NSO Assistant Conductor Ankush Kumar Bahl (center) during the organ's test with the orchestra on Oct. 18.
Credit Kainaz Amaria/NPR / Kainaz Amaria
The organ console and concert hall seen through the pipes of the organ chamber set behind the orchestra.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
The new organ was tested with the orchestra on Oct. 18.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Organ consultant Jeff Weiler (left) and Casavant artistic director Jacquelin Rochette oversaw the tremendous task of building, installing and voicing the Kennedy Center's new organ.
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Originally published on Wed November 28, 2012 9:16 am

It was almost spooky. Each night after 11 p.m., when nothing was stirring in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, two men would enter. One would sit at the organ, playing a key or series of keys, and the other would crawl around inside the organ pipes, 40 feet off the floor. The process went on for months.

It was the all but final phase of installing a new organ for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. And on Nov. 27, the organ makes its formal debut.

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