The spotlight will shine on the pipe...

The spotlight will shine on the pipe organ instead of the pulpit this afternoon at St. Cross Episcopal Church in Hermosa Beach, where 12 Southern California organists are scheduled to perform in a three-hour music marathon.

Rather than playing music composed for the pipe organ, however, the organists will perform adaptations of works originally written for other instruments, such as the violin, piano and harpsichord.

“Lots of times the transcriptions sound like the original work, but we don’t duplicate the piece,” said G. Russell Wing, coordinator for the Festival of Transcriptions for the Pipe Organ. “Instead, we adapt to the color of the piece. This organ is a very colorful instrument.”

Each of the 12 organists will do about a 13-minute set, playing one to three compositions per set.

The St. Cross pipe organ is a four-manual, 56-rank pipe organ, which means it has four keyboards and 56 sets of pipes. A group of pipes ranging from low C to high F makes up a set. Wing says the St. Cross organ can adapt to these different compositions because it has great flexibility.

This is the 17th year St. Cross Church has presented the Festival of Transcriptions for the Pipe Organ. After the church’s organ was designed in 1974, Wing knew that it was an instrument worthy of showing off.

“When we designed the organ, we wanted to share it with other organists. And this was one way to do it,” said Wing, organist emeritus at St. Cross. “For a while, the festival lasted all afternoon from 1 to 7 p.m., but we’ve since shortened it to 12 organists.”

The festival will run from 2 to 5 p.m. at the church at 1818 Monterey Blvd., Hermosa Beach. Contributions will be accepted for the organ fund; proceeds will be used for repair and upkeep of the organ. There will be no admission fee.