Just before Halloween, University Organist Mark Steinbach, who is also an instrument curator and senior lecturer in music, released his new album “Midnight Organ,” which features songs from his over 30 years of performing Midnight Halloween Organ Recitals. After a multi-year restoration of the Sayles Organ, this is the first professional recording on the instrument, Steinbach said.
The album features Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous “Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565” and John Williams’s “Hewdig’s Theme” from Harry Potter, alongside 17 other tracks.
Having recorded three other “more academic” albums in the past, Steinbach recorded “Midnight Organ” as a more “fun” album. “There’s a campy element, there’s a whimsical element, and it sparks the imagination like nothing else does.”
When deciding which songs to feature, Steinbach said he’s “had 33 years in this laboratory to try out different things for the audience. I can kind of tell what resonated.” He also tried to balance the different sounds, musical colors and timbres of the organ. The final collection was a blend of quieter pieces and scary, gothic pieces.
While Steinbach didn’t write any of the songs himself, he arranged some pieces — that were originally written for different instruments — for the Sayles Organ.
He recorded the album in June 2025, but due to the organ’s sensitivity to temperature, his team had to record late at night. During his sabbatical in spring 2026, Steinbach independently worked through around six hours of raw takes to cut the album down to 75 minutes.
Richard Guérin, Steinbach’s producer, said that “Midnight Organ” aims to reduce the stigma around classical music. “All you can do is open the door for people, and if they decide to walk in, they can walk in,” Guérin said.
“Brown has somebody in their midst who’s at the top of their profession,” Guérin said. He added that Steinbach has an understanding of the “tentacles that can transcend” musical genres.
Steinbach has also played the organ in many European cathedrals, including Notre Dame in France and Dresden Cathedral in Germany. “The sounds and the number of keyboards are really different on each pipe organ that you play,” he said, and these differences reflect a country’s culture and history.
Steinbach was first introduced to the organ in his childhood church where he found the electronic organ to be “very cool.” After moving to a new town in Kansas, he began playing for his church.
Since then, his love for the organ has only grown. He was the “niche music nerd in high school,” and when he studied music at the University of Kansas, he found a broader community of people studying music. Later, he went on to receive a Fulbright scholarship to study in Austria, which “spurred (his) love for the historic instruments in Europe,” he said. After studying there for a year, he attended graduate school at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Now, he performs at many organ concerts throughout the academic year, including recitals, Baccalaureate, Commencement and First-Year Orientation.
“I see people at the big bookends of their life at Brown,” he said.
Tyler Timmers is a senior staff writer covering undergraduate student life.
