Schoenstein Organ at the Conference Center
The Schoenstein Organ at the Conference Center is a pipe organ built by Schoenstein & Co., San Francisco, California located in the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Salt Lake City, Utah. The organ was completed in 2003. It is composed of 160 speaking stops spread over five manuals and pedals. Along with the nearby Salt Lake Tabernacle organ, it is typically used to accompany the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Schoenstein & Co.'s president and tonal director, Jack Bethards, describes it as "an American Romantic  organ" that is "probably more English than anything else." Originally, the builders were told the instrument would likely only be used during the LDS Church's April and October general conferences and a few other occasions annually. However, in addition to these events, the organ is now played for the second of two daily concerts during the summer tourist season (the first concert takes place in the Tabernacle, the regular home of the daily noon concerts), the annual First Presidency's Christmas Devotional, the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert series, and other numerous other performances throughout the year. The organ  is about two-thirds the size of the Tabernacle organ in number of pipes (the Conference Center Organ has 7,708 pipes in 130 ranks, while the Tabernacle Organ has 11,623 pipes in 206 ranks). Former Tabernacle organist John Longhurst described it as a "project of immense proportion." According to Bethards, when played as a solo instrument, it is never amplified; its sound carries through the auditorium under the organ's power alone. Longhurst described his reaction to the announcement in 1996 of the building of the Conference Center and his involvement in the building of the organ as follows: The  organ includes a number of so-called "mechanical aids," though these are actually electronic. According to principal Tabernacle organist Richard Elliott, these include a "built-in recorder," which allows organists to play a performance, and then go out into the auditorium and listen as the organ's computer replays the piece by physically sounding the pipes.