Tampa Theatre's organist on his life and the history of pipe organs in movie palaces
By Jessica Meszaros
August 29, 2025 at 5:45 AM EDT
The musician will be live scoring for silent comedy short films at the theatre on Sunday, Aug. 31.
If you attend a major event at Tampa Theatre, you’ll likely be surprised and delighted when, 20 minutes before your show, music suddenly vibrates from behind the walls as an organ slowly rises from the stage with its controller’s back turned to you.
The organist is Steven Ball. He’s the artist in residence at Tampa Theatre, the downtown movie palace.
“Why does the theater have an organ? It's part of our entertainment culture that's, in a way, now so far removed historically, it's not necessarily logical to people because they don't see an organ at the Cineplex if they go there,” Ball said.
“The organ is simply part of an entertainment ecosystem. So, the organ is a unique fixture to this building, but would not have been unique to theaters of the 1920s.”
Somewhere between 1910 and 1915, theaters became so large, it was difficult for a single musician, like a pianist, to fill the building with the sound of just one instrument.
“The organs were an automatic solution to a problem of: how do we efficiently make music for a thousand people?” Ball said.
Tampa Theatre's iconic organ ascends and descends from the stage. (4032x3024, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Around that time, British engineer Robert Hope Jones immigrated to the U.S. from England bringing with him a number of “extremely radical ideas about organ building.”
“His concept was to have a machine where one man could simulate the sound effects of an entire symphony orchestra — all the instrumentalists and all of the percussion and sound effects at the same time,” Ball said.
ALSO READ: Tampa Theatre wants to celebrate its centennial with your memories and an historic restoration
Tampa Theatre houses a Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ.
“If you take a look at that console, you'll see that there's a name plate on it, and it says Robert Hope Jones Unit Orchestra,” Ball said.
The console is how Ball controls the instrument, while the organ itself is “six tons of equipment hidden up in the walls of the building,” comprised of a wind system and pipes.
These days, Ball estimates there are maybe 50 — probably fewer than 40 — theater organs “that survive in their original home” compared to the previous 7,000.
“This is one of them,” he said. “Although, this organ has had a very checkered history.”
The "Mighty Wurlitzer" was designed to sound like a full orchestra, offering a wide range of sounds and special effects. (5712x4284, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Around 1950, after the depression and World War II, Ball said theaters went silent at a time when you couldn't buy metal to build pipes, so theater organs were repurposed for churches.
“And that actually happened here,” Ball said. “This organ moved to Bayshore Baptist, and it became Baptist for a number of years. It finally came back to the theater in the 1970s."
A number of volunteers who loved and remembered the sound of the theater organ had been working on restoring the instrument and wanted to bring it back to the building.
The organ was repurchased by the Tampa Theatre Foundation, and it again became a fixture of the building.
Although, it's more than doubled in size since then.
“Now it has 15 sets of pipes and percussions. All of this hidden behind the walls and arches,” Ball said.
He grew up on a farm in rural Michigan. His parents had seen his interest in the organ from a young age and were supportive.
“Whenever we went to church, that was all I was interested in,” Ball said. “My dad was quite an engineer. By the time I was age 6, I remember he had checked out a number of books on organ building from the library and helped me build a small, little pipe organ in our basement.”
Steven Ball, organist and artist in residence for Tampa Theatre, playing a Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ. (5712x4284, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Ball studied the organ at the University of Michigan and earned a Fulbright scholarship to the Netherlands, where he studied bells — campanology is a whole separate but related science.
His love of theater organs led him to Tampa Theatre, where Ball said he was able to meet his predecessor Rosa Rio who was the oldest living professional theater organist in her day “who had survived into modern times.”
“I interviewed her quite extensively for my doctorate to have a better understanding of her work in theaters on the East Coast, New York City in particular,” Ball said.
“In general, my brain is always very attracted to anything which is an intersection of art, engineering and music. And so that's been the sort of hallmark of my career. And in a particular way, public musical instruments.”
When asked what the little boy who built an organ in his basement with his dad would think about his life now, Ball said, “What a journey ... that's all I can say. What a journey.”
Ball will be live scoring Tampa Theatre’s popular program of silent comedy shorts called The Silent Clowns on Sunday, Aug. 31.
“If I do my job, right, they won't even notice I'm there,” he said.
The organist is Steven Ball. He’s the artist in residence at Tampa Theatre, the downtown movie palace.
“Why does the theater have an organ? It's part of our entertainment culture that's, in a way, now so far removed historically, it's not necessarily logical to people because they don't see an organ at the Cineplex if they go there,” Ball said.
“The organ is simply part of an entertainment ecosystem. So, the organ is a unique fixture to this building, but would not have been unique to theaters of the 1920s.”
Somewhere between 1910 and 1915, theaters became so large, it was difficult for a single musician, like a pianist, to fill the building with the sound of just one instrument.
“The organs were an automatic solution to a problem of: how do we efficiently make music for a thousand people?” Ball said.
Tampa Theatre's iconic organ ascends and descends from the stage. (4032x3024, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Around that time, British engineer Robert Hope Jones immigrated to the U.S. from England bringing with him a number of “extremely radical ideas about organ building.”
“His concept was to have a machine where one man could simulate the sound effects of an entire symphony orchestra — all the instrumentalists and all of the percussion and sound effects at the same time,” Ball said.
ALSO READ: Tampa Theatre wants to celebrate its centennial with your memories and an historic restoration
Tampa Theatre houses a Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ.
“If you take a look at that console, you'll see that there's a name plate on it, and it says Robert Hope Jones Unit Orchestra,” Ball said.
The console is how Ball controls the instrument, while the organ itself is “six tons of equipment hidden up in the walls of the building,” comprised of a wind system and pipes.
These days, Ball estimates there are maybe 50 — probably fewer than 40 — theater organs “that survive in their original home” compared to the previous 7,000.
“This is one of them,” he said. “Although, this organ has had a very checkered history.”
The "Mighty Wurlitzer" was designed to sound like a full orchestra, offering a wide range of sounds and special effects. (5712x4284, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Around 1950, after the depression and World War II, Ball said theaters went silent at a time when you couldn't buy metal to build pipes, so theater organs were repurposed for churches.
“And that actually happened here,” Ball said. “This organ moved to Bayshore Baptist, and it became Baptist for a number of years. It finally came back to the theater in the 1970s."
A number of volunteers who loved and remembered the sound of the theater organ had been working on restoring the instrument and wanted to bring it back to the building.
The organ was repurchased by the Tampa Theatre Foundation, and it again became a fixture of the building.
Although, it's more than doubled in size since then.
“Now it has 15 sets of pipes and percussions. All of this hidden behind the walls and arches,” Ball said.
He grew up on a farm in rural Michigan. His parents had seen his interest in the organ from a young age and were supportive.
“Whenever we went to church, that was all I was interested in,” Ball said. “My dad was quite an engineer. By the time I was age 6, I remember he had checked out a number of books on organ building from the library and helped me build a small, little pipe organ in our basement.”
Steven Ball, organist and artist in residence for Tampa Theatre, playing a Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ. (5712x4284, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Ball studied the organ at the University of Michigan and earned a Fulbright scholarship to the Netherlands, where he studied bells — campanology is a whole separate but related science.
His love of theater organs led him to Tampa Theatre, where Ball said he was able to meet his predecessor Rosa Rio who was the oldest living professional theater organist in her day “who had survived into modern times.”
“I interviewed her quite extensively for my doctorate to have a better understanding of her work in theaters on the East Coast, New York City in particular,” Ball said.
“In general, my brain is always very attracted to anything which is an intersection of art, engineering and music. And so that's been the sort of hallmark of my career. And in a particular way, public musical instruments.”
When asked what the little boy who built an organ in his basement with his dad would think about his life now, Ball said, “What a journey ... that's all I can say. What a journey.”
Ball will be live scoring Tampa Theatre’s popular program of silent comedy shorts called The Silent Clowns on Sunday, Aug. 31.
“If I do my job, right, they won't even notice I'm there,” he said.