About HOS
The Harvard Organ Society consists of a diverse group of students with an interest in organ music.
Several members play the organ, some actively studying the instrument at Harvard, and many simply enjoy the
music of "the king of instruments."
The Society was founded as a Harvard College undergraduate organization in the 1950s, but lay dormant for
several years before being revived and renewed in 1995. The primary membership and officers are Harvard
College undergraduates as required by the founding by-laws, but the wider membership includes graduate
students as well. We also maintain an informal membership community of regular recital attendees by means of
our announcements e-mail list.
The Society sponsors the Thursday Lunchtime Recital Series in Busch Hall, every week 12:15-12:45
during term time, featuring organists from around campus and around the world. We also run a celebrity
series with world-famous concert organists. There are many performance opportunities for the student
organist, and the Society will gladly help locate teachers and instruments on which to practice.
Other activities of the group include trips to area organs and organ factories and the famous midnight Halloween
Recital. In the summer of 1997, we traveled to Germany with Professor Christoph Wolff to study and play organs known
to Bach. In the summer of 2000 we made an organ tour of France. In the summer of 2002 we traveled to see the organs
of Holland and England. In the spring of 2003 we looked at organs in Worcester, Massachusetts.
