The D. of Cleveland is really a local oasis. I am reliably told that there is NO regular TLM in the D. of Toledo. There's one in the D. of Youngtown (where I live), but I've seen immense amounts of liturgical abuse elsewhere there.

Not true. St. Joseph Catholic on Erie Street in Toledo has been and remains the locus of the EF, offered every Sunday. It is, sadly, the only parish in the entire diocese that I know of that does so.

MJO, I was at that chant workshop planning meeting. Although I was disappointed it fell through I wasn't surprised. I tried for over a decade to improve the music situation in one parish. I have since moved.

There are a few good music programs in line with the NPM paradigm, but I don't know of any CMAA members currently working in that diocese.

Thanks to everyone for the update. I guess a fact-checker would rate my statement as "mostly true" ;-)

GH -
Yes, I did play it. It is a giant, one with which I had great enjoyment for quite some time. Regrettably, our time was limited, but I did get to improvise for the better part of an hour, and play a few pieces from the repertory.

Aeolian-Skinner were, as every one knows, legendary in organ building. It's a pity they aren't around today. It might have turned out differently had they not absolutely refused to build anything but huge instruments. One wonders what the XXIst century Skinner sound would be. What their response to the baroque revival might have been, and what their response to the current romantic revival would have been. They truly straddled the gamut and deserve an honoured place beside the great historic European builders. We have five Skinners in Houston. The best, by far, is at Christ Church Cathedral (which boasts an additional small one in one of the chapels), the other three being at First Methodist, First Presbyterian, and Temple Beth-Israel across from Rice University.

Back to Toledo's cathedral: Unfortunately, the very large and not unobtrusive console (with its atrocious umbilical wires snaking around all over the place) has been re-situated into the immense sanctuary, within fifteen or twenty feet of the altar; and the re-situated choir, I think, are seated nearby on folding chairs. This is rather a thoughtless, hideous, and slap-dash arrangement in such a glorious work of sacred architecture. Only in the vacuous 'spirit-of-Vatican-II' mind would such liturgical nonsense and aesthetical blight have been thinkable.

...more than Moller and Schantz.

Now, Schantz I accept. Their sound, I think, resembles somewhat closely that of Skinner. Their organ at St Paul's Methodist (quite the largest of Houston's three Gothic piles - some cities have dozens!) here is quite fine. While they would not be my first, second, or third, choice, I would not be at all unhappy with one.

Moller, though? It is a mystery to me why anyone would want a Moller, a Reuter, or a Wicks. Moller, of course, has bitten the dust. The other two are easily the most horrid organbuilders in the US. It's a genuine pity that one or all of them didn't go out of business instead of Skinner. Reuter earlier this year finished a 'renovation' of a fine Holtkamp that was my instrument back in the 70s and early 80s. This historic Holtkamp of around 40 ranks (vintage 1956) was Houston's first neo-baroque instrument, and was for many years its only one. Well, Reuter gutted the great and replaced it with more 'robust' stops, and, in general absolutely savaged the original Holtkamp tonal design. These people have no conscience and no integrity.