The city’s biggest instrument is ready for its close-up.

First United Methodist Church’s Reuter pipe organ, with its 88 ranks, or 5,100 pipes, will be the star of the 10th Annual Organ Spectacular by Chamber Orchestra of the Springs. The Sunday concert kicks off the orchestra’s 2025-2026 season.

“If someone hasn’t heard it, be ready for sights and sounds you’d never have expected from any musical instrument,” said the orchestra’s music director, Thomas Wilson. “It’s a massive sound. The sound of the orchestra is already big enough and then you bring in the organ. A lot of people look at the organ as a one-man symphony with all those options of sound. It expands the color palette and possibilities so much.”

The 90-minute concert will feature three organists: composer Roderick Gorby; Joel Trekell, the organist and music director at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church; and Joe Galema, the principal organist at First United Methodist. They’ll perform Dan Locklair’s “Concerto for Organ & Orchestra,” Hans Zimmer’s suite from the 2014 film “Interstellar” and the world premiere of Gorby’s “An American Tone Poem.”

The orchestra performed half of Gorby’s piece a few years ago, and since then he’s finished the work. Wilson calls it “fairly patriotic, but on top of that it’s a lot of fun with an orchestra jumping in.”

“The ‘Interstellar’ is pure genius,” Wilson said. “His (Zimmer’s) idea to depict the vastness of space with the sound of the organ was brilliant. John Williams in the last ‘Star Wars’ film also used organ. There’s this new interest in the sound of the organ. With so many churches closing we’re losing so many of them. We have to protect and celebrate these incredible instruments that take a giant amount of money to build and maintain.”

In 2014 First United finished a six-year, $425,000 renovation of the organ that increased its value to more than $2 million. The organ was built in 1955, and also was enlarged in 1985 and 1986.

“Not only to bring it up to the highest standard, but it also added ranks of pipes in the rear of the church so it’s surround sound,” Wilson said. “It’s the largest and best maintained organ in this part of the country. Some of this, like ‘Interstellar,’ will be a wall of sound. It will pin you back in your seat. As a chamber orchestra we don’t do a lot of super loud repertoire. To cut loose a little bit once in a season is pretty fun.”

For pipe organ lovers, the orchestra also will host an ancillary activity, “Bach Around the Block,” a free walking tour of three downtown pipe organs at First Congregational Church, Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and Shove Chapel. Reservations are required. Go online to chamberorchestraofthesprings.org.

There’s much more to a pipe organ than what you see during a performance.

“Something like this takes up rooms full of motors and fans and things to move the air,” Wilson said. “You see a bunch of pipes but behind them are more pipes and more and more. The console itself is separate from all that and has to be connected electronically to operate the whole system. The whole thing you’re looking at is a giant achievement of engineering and physics.”