The Cornell Zimmer organ at Grace Episcopal was inaugurated in the year 2000. The console is centrally located in the choir area. The organ pipes are placed in two main chambers on the north wall of the church with the horizontal trumpet pipes suspended above the west door. The fundamental design of the organ is to include ample wind blown organ pipes for the core foundation soundswhich an organ produces with digitally sampled organ pipes for the remainder of the specification. The digital resources of the organ are engineered by Walker Technical, an industry leader in this technology. There are five divisions to the organ placed in three significant locations inside the church; above the door, opening into the choir area, and opening into the left side of the church behind the lecturn. All of the visible pipes are made from flamed copper which produces beautiful color variations from the copper.
The console is made from quarter sawn white oak. The manual keys are made from cow bone and the pedal keys are made from maple and rosewood. All of these materials give a most natural feel to the organist and age beautifully over time.
The organ has a wonderful room-filling sound because it is placed in three areas. Two unique features are that the organ has a computer based interface installed. This makes it possible to connect the organ to a computer to produce even more organ voices or even possibly for the organ to be played by the computer. Also, there is a keyboard named the Solo manual which is usually found on large four manual organs in expansive British cathedrals. This gives the organ a slight British accent with a firm foundation of classic American organ design.
