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Utah couldn’t get enough defensive stops Saturday night against No. 9 BYU in the latest rivalry matchup at the Huntsman Center.

The Runnin’ Utes, though, made the Cougars work for the victory, even as a heavy underdog.

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There are no moral victories in this bitter rivalry, but if Utah can show progress moving forward from BYU’s harder-than-expected 89-84 victory, this kind of effort won’t go in vain.

“I think it was, there was a lot of little things, a lot of game plan things, little details that I don’t know if we just forgot or didn’t pay attention to,” Utah first-year coach Alex Jensen said about what cost Utah against the Cougars.

“Down the stretch, we’ve talked about it for a while because we’re going to give up size to other teams, but giving up the offensive (boards), it’s hard to get a stop and then they get the offensive rebounds. It’s a hard thing to come back from, especially the last few minutes.”

Jensen lamented his team’s defensive effort against the Cougars multiple times in the postgame press conference — BYU was able to shoot 50% in the game, and the Cougars held a 41-33 rebounding edge.

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Senior Richie Saunders, who had never beaten Utah in the Huntsman Center until Saturday, was especially destructive on the boards. He had 14, including six on the offensive end, and helped BYU have a 16-10 edge in offensive boards and 19-14 in second-chance points.

“It’s hard to give up 89 points and win, right?” Jensen said. “And if you look at all the good teams in college that win, (they) are the other teams that defend and rebound.”

Utah has made giving BYU headaches in the Huntsman a routine thing. Even though the Cougars are the program on the ascent, the Utes still won their last two games in the series played at the storied venue.

Utah even pumped some belief into the packed house multiple times over the course of the game that it could stun BYU again.

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The Utes got out to a 7-0 start in the game, then matched BYU punch for punch in the first half before going into the break down two after a questionable foul call resulted in two free throws from AJ Dybantsa just before the half.

Though BYU eventually built a 13-point lead in the second half, the Utes fought back again and made it a one-possession game multiple times down the stretch.

That included cutting it to 81-80 on two Terrence Brown free throws with 3:15 to play.

Then, the Utes had a defensive stop in the final minute down three, but a costly turnover — just Utah’s ninth of the night — gave BYU the ball back with eight seconds remaining.

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Two Saunders free throws followed that turnover from Brown, and with that, the Utes’ fight came up short.

Brown and Don McHenry showed up well in their introduction to the rivalry, as the dynamic scoring guards accounted for more than half of Utah’s points.

Brown had a game-high 25 points to go with five assists, three rebounds and two blocked shots, while McHenry had 21 points, two assists, two rebounds and a steal.

“Coach was just just saying you should be excited to play in a game like this,” Brown said. “… It was just a good opportunity, and it was definitely exciting.”

Fifth-year forward James Okonkwo provided a spark in front of a raucous crowd, to the tune of 13 rebounds, four points and two assists.

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“James has been great the last two games. It’s great because it leads us with a physicality and just his presence, and that’s kind of what we want from him as a fifth-year senior,” Jensen said.

“The last two games, he’s been great and hopefully we get that, that same James going forward.”

Speaking of the crowd, the Utes noticed just how much a packed house for the first time this season — call it the annual rivalry effect — brought an energy to an arena that is often far too quiet as Utah tries to rebuild a once-proud program.

“I think the MUSS did a really good job of, like energizing us. It was a different level of energy in the game today, and it was really encouraging,” Okonkwo said.

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“We went out on a really good run to start the game, and you could just feel it. We were locked in and it was really fun.”

It wasn’t enough to best BYU’s Big 3. Dybantsa, the projected lottery pick, had 20 points, six rebounds and four assists, Saunders tossed in 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds (six offensive), while Rob Wright III added 23 points and six assists.

Can Utah learn from this game and take some lessons into the rest of Big 12 play?

Yes, the Utes are likely to lose the majority of their games the remainder of the season — they are the worst-ranked Big 12 team in the NET and KenPom, by a sizable margin — but Utah also showed that it’s progressing, even if incrementally.

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“Honestly, like we have enough — we’re going to be so good when we clean up just a little mistakes,“ Okonkwo said. ”Honestly, that’s my opinion.

“That’s what (coach) was kind of harping on about in the locker room, just staying consistent. Just get better every day.”

There was a packed house inside the Huntsman Center on Saturday night — a rarity these days, outside of when BYU comes to town.

That was the case again, as the No. 9 Cougars made the trek to Salt Lake City for the first of two rivalry games over the next two weeks — the two teams will play in Provo on Jan. 24.

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The Runnin’ Utes, for their part, gave their fans plenty to cheer about against BYU.

Utah played the Cougars even in the first half, fell behind by as many as 13 in the second and then rallied to within a possession, even down one, late in the game before BYU sealed the win in the final minute.

Here are three takeaways from the game from the Utes’ perspective.

An impressive start and overall fight for Utah

In the Utes’ first two Big 12 contests, they found themselves down 14-2 to No. 1 Arizona and 11-1 to Colorado.

Before all the fans had a chance to settle into their seats at the Huntsman Center Saturday, though, it was Utah who found itself with a nice early lead.

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Terrence Brown hit a couple buckets and a free throw, while James Okonkwo added a dunk, and the Utes were up 7-0 less than a minute and a half in.

BYU recovered from that early spurt and took its first lead at 10-9, but it set the tone as the teams battled back and forth all night.

What resulted was a highly entertaining matchup in which each team took its share of punches and delivered counterpunches.

Though BYU used a 12-2 run early in the second half to go up as many as 13, Utah struck back and was within a possession multiple times down the stretch.

The Utes are still in search of playing a complete game, but rest assured, they made the Cougars play all 40 minutes Saturday night.

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Can Utah carry this kind of energy into games when non-rivals come to the Huntsman Center later this year?

BYU has its Big 3, but Utes’ dynamic guards — and others — played their hearts out

The Cougars are well-known for their star trio of players: AJ Dybantsa, Rob Wright III and Richie Saunders.

And understandably, those three led BYU to the win.

Credit needs to be thrown the way of Utah’s top scorers as well, though.

Brown, even though he had a costly late turnover when the Utes had a chance to tie with under 10 seconds to play, elevated to the moment against the rivals.

He finished with a team-high 25 points and added five rebounds and three assists.

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Don McHenry added 21 points, two rebounds and two assists, and time and again, the dynamic guards came up with big shots.

Okonkwo, too, brought energy inside for Utah, finishing with 13 rebounds, four points and two assists.

An electric atmosphere — and a full MUSS — finally gave the Utes nice crowd support

The Huntsman Center atmosphere has been a far cry from its former electric self, when Alex Jensen was a player at the U.

Even in these lean crowd years, Utah fans have turned out for the BYU game, and that was the case late Saturday night.

The Utes fed off the crowd Saturday, from the first half when the two teams battled back and forth, to late in the game, when hope was still alive that Utah could pull the upset.

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(Don’t pay attention to the fact the MUSS held its sign up backwards at the start of the contest and at halftime — that was a bit embarrassing).

Playing in front of an electrified crowd was a reward for a group of Utah players who finally got to see what a full arena looks like.

Only Keanu Dawes was around and played when these teams faced each other in the Huntsman last year (Ibi Traore and Jerry Huang were there last year, too, but they never played).

For guys such as Brown, McHenry, Okonkwo and all the other newcomers, they got to experience the buzz here at least once this season.

Utah made the game closer than expected, but BYU held the lead the entire second half and beat Utah 89-84 Saturday night in Salt Lake City.

BYU’s big three carried the scoring once again, led by 24 points and 14 rebounds (6 offensive) from Richie Saunders. Richie was able to get into the lane and his offensive rebounds in the second half kept Utah from being able to take the lead. BYU had 16 offensive rebounds compared to 10 from Utah.

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Rob Wright finished with 23 points and 6 assists, and AJ Dybantsa scored 20 points despite constant double and triple teams the entire night. Keba Keita rounded out BYU’s double figure scorers with 11 points to go along with 6 boards.

BYU led by 45-43 at halftime and looked like they were about to run away with the when they went ahead by 12 points two separate times, but Utah’s high-scoring guard duo of Terrence Brown and Dom McHenry made big shots and BYU missed free throws to keep Utah within striking distance. Brown scored 25 for Utah while McHenry scored 21. Utah shot just 6-22 from three, but they were able to get into the paint and shot 18-21 from the foul line. BYU was 19-29 from the free throw line.

This was BYU’s 12th win in a row and moves BYU to 15-1 on the season. These two teams rematch in two weeks in Provo. BYU next returns to the Marriott Center Wednesday to host TCU in a 9pm MT tip.

The ninth-ranked BYU Cougars are looking for their 12th straight win, and would love nothing more than to get it on the floor of their in-state rival, the unranked Utah Utes.

The Cougars are hefty 13-point road favorites for this one in the college basketball odds.

My BYU vs. Utah prediction and free college basketball picks have this Big 12 rivalry game staying close throughout.

BYU vs Utah prediction

BYU vs Utah best bet: Utah Utes +14.5 (-110)

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Since losing to 3rd-ranked UConn on Nov 15, the BYU Cougars have been lighting it up, as they picked up their 11th straight win last time out, crushing the Arizona State Sun Devils 104-76.

The Cougars rank 15th in the nation in scoring, averaging a crisp 88.2 points per game.

They’re powered by arguably the best trio in college basketball, led by star AJ Dybantsa, one of the top picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.

The athletic wing has scored at least 20 points in 10 games this season and leads the team at 23.1 points per game.

Paired with senior Richie Saunders – coming off a career-best 31 over ASU – and sophomore Robert Wright (17ppg), they’re accounting for about 60 points per game for BYU.

The Utah Utes are trending in the wrong direction: an 85-73 loss at Colorado was their third straight setback, and they have just three wins in their last 10 games.

Utah ranks outside the Top 10 in Big 12 scoring at 80.3 points per game, but its defense is perhaps the bigger issue, ranking second-last in the conference, allowing 80.1 points.

They’re 309th in field goal shooting defense, and 233rd from 3-point range, allowing teams to shoot at a 34% clip.

BYU has won four of the last six head-to-head meetings, but the Utes are a perfect 3-0-0 against the spread in the last three matchups.

In the last 10 BYU vs. Utah battles, the Cougars have six wins, with five of those coming by at least double digits. However, the margin of victory was never greater than Saturday’s 13-point spread.

The Utes have won seven of nine at home this season, while BYU has just one road game Under its belt all year.

This one has a rivalry game all over it, and while I predict the Cougars do win, the Utes should be able to live within that 13-point spread.

BYU vs Utah same-game parlay

A.J. Dybantsa has been on a scoring binge all season for the Cougars, ranking fourth in the nation, scoring 23.1 points per game on 58.3% shooting. He’s topped his 23.5-point scoring line in five of his last seven games, missing the Over in the other two games by a single bucket.

Richie Saunders is on a nice stretch of his own, scoring 19 or more points in four of his last five outings. But he’s yet to crack 19 points in three career games against the Utes.

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BYU vs Utah SGP

• Utah Utes +14.5

• A.J. Dybantsa Over 23.5 points

• Richie Saunders Over 18.5 points

Our beyond the arc SGP: McTriple!

Don McHenry is shooting a blistering 42.6% from three-point range, and he’s connected on at least three triples in four of his last five games.

BYU vs Utah SGP

• Utah Utes +14.5

• A.J. Dybantsa Over 23.5 points

• Richie Saunders Over 18.5 points

• Don McHenry Over 2.5 made threes

BYU vs Utah odds

• Spread: BYU -13.5 (-115) | Utah +13.5 (-105)

• Moneyline: BYU -1,070 | Utah +775

• Over/Under: Over 165.5 (-110) | Under 165.5 (-110)

BYU vs Utah betting trend to know

The Utes have cashed the Over in 11 of 15 games this season. Find more college basketball betting trends for BYU vs. Utah.

How to watch BYU vs Utah

BYU vs Utah key injuries

Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
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What channel is Utah vs. BYU on today? Time, TV schedule, live stream to watch men’s basketball rivalry game originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The balance of basketball power in the Beehive State has shifted in recent years, but there’s nothing Utah would enjoy more than to bring BYU down a notch.

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The rivalry resumes Saturday as the ninth-ranked Cougars visit Salt Lake City to face the Utes in the first of two showdowns in a two-week span.

While the Cougars (14-1) are riding high behind superstar freshman AJ Dybantsa, the Utes (8-7) enter the game in desperate need of a win after dropping three in a row. Utah is 1-5 against power-conference opponents this season, its lone win a one-point squeaker against Ole Miss the day before Thanksgiving.

The Utes will need a big game from leading scorer Terrence Brown (21.4 points per game) after he had a rough shooting night last time out against Colorado, making just 5 of 17 from the field.

Here’s how to tune in and watch all the action Saturday night.

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What channel is Utah vs. BYU on today?

• TV channel: ESPN

Utah vs. BYU will be broadcast on ESPN with Dave Flemming and Sean Farnham on the call. Fans can also stream the game live via the ESPN app.

Now you can watch ESPN without cable. Stream live NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, college sports, plus SportsCenter, First Take, and all your favorite ESPN shows—anytime, anywhere—only in the new ESPN app.

What time is Utah vs. BYU today?

• Date: Saturday, Jan. 10

• Time: 10 p.m. ET | 8 p.m. MT

The Utes and Cougars will tip off at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 10. The game will be played at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Utah vs. BYU radio coverage

Fans can listen to Utah vs. BYU live on SiriusXM. The Cougars’ broadcast will air on channel 143 for in-vehicle listeners, and the Utes’ call will be on channel 84.

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New subscribers can listen to SiriusXM for free for four months. Listen to live NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL games, plus NASCAR, college sports and more. Stay updated with all the news and get all the analysis on multiple sport-specific channels.

Utah basketball schedule 2025-26

Here are the Utes’ next five games:

BYU basketball schedule 2025-26

Here are the Cougars’ next five games:

College basketball AP top 25 rankings

The University of Utah basketball team is getting a crash course education this week in what the BYU-Utah rivalry means to both schools.

There’s only one Runnin’ Ute on this year’s roster, junior forward Keanu Dawes, who has ever played against the Cougars.

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On top of that, most Utah players this season are from other parts of the country or are international players — there are no Utes who hail from the Beehive State — so when Utah hosts No. 9 BYU on Saturday (8 p.m. MST, ESPN), it will be their first taste of the bitter rivalry.

“I just know it’s called the Holy War,” said Utes fifth-year forward James Okonkwo, whose college career has taken him to West Virginia, North Carolina and Akron before Utah.

“I don’t know a lot about it honestly because obviously they were late to the Big 12 merger when I was at West Virginia so I didn’t really get to experience playing either team, let alone know the rivalry. But I love rivalry games, always look forward to those. That’s gonna be a really special environment.”

Thanks to guys like Dawes and first-year Utah head coach Alex Jensen (the former Ute star forward who went 10-2 against BYU as a player), there are at least some in the locker room who understand what the rivalry means before Utah gets on the court for Saturday’s matchup.

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Asked if Dawes has let his teammates know what’s in store, Okonkwo said, “Just that it’s gonna be a dogfight. The refs might hold the whistle a little bit, let us kind of duke it out a little bit, and I’m excited for that. But nothing too specific. (We need to) just stay on our identity and keep playing us.”

“I mean, I could tell them as much as I can but it’s not really something you can put into words until you’re actually in the environment and experience it for yourself.”

Utah forward Keanu Dawes, on facing BYU

Added Dawes, “I mean, I could tell them as much as I can but it’s not really something you can put into words until you’re actually in the environment and experience it for yourself.”

It’s an opportunity for guys such as promising freshman forward Kendyl Sanders to get a temperature on the heated rivalry.

“Honestly, all I know is going to be packed in here,” he said.

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Jensen was a perfect 5-0 against BYU at the Huntsman Center during his playing days. While no particular memory stands out to him from his time playing against the Cougars, the feeling after a win over the rival stuck out.

“The good memories are always winning, right?” Jensen said. “I just told our guys, there’s nothing like after a game, playing hard and beating a team — there’s no better feeling like that. BYU being the rival just kind of amplifies a little bit of everything.

“I think we’ll be ready, but again (it’s a) great opportunity and I don’t want us to lose it and look back and say we didn’t play hard, or we didn’t do this or that.”

Oddly enough, despite BYU being the program on the rise in recent years while Utah has been searching to rekindle its former glory, the Cougars have lost their last two games against the Utes in the Huntsman Center.

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A year ago, Utah won in overtime, 73-72. Ezra Ausar, who’s now playing at USC, scored 26 points and led a 16-4 second-half run that helped turn the tide before the game went into the extra session, and former Cougars-turned-Utes Hunter Erickson and Jake Wahlin made plays for Utah in the win.

Two seasons ago, BYU was ranked No. 14 going into the Huntsman and had a three-game win streak in the series. Utah, though, stormed out to a 17-5 lead, then Gabe Madsen drained a critical 3 with just over a minute to play as Utah won, 73-69.

In the game two years ago, Keba Keita had 10 points, six rebounds and a blocked shot for Utah. He’s since transferred to BYU, though, and now he starts for the Cougars.

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That’s one of several ties between the two programs, even if this year the two rosters combine for only three players — all on the BYU roster — who hail from Utah hometowns.

Dawes actually grew up as a kid in the Salt Lake valley before moving to Houston and playing his high school ball there. He attended Runnin’ Ute games with his grandparents, who were Utah season ticket holders.

He remembers the lead-up to Utah-BYU contests of years past, “just excitement for it.”

Last year, he experienced it firsthand, coming off the bench in both games against BYU.

In their Huntsman Center matchup when Utah won by a point, Dawes had the chance to extend Utah’s 73-72 lead with five seconds left in overtime — just moments after BYU’s Trevin Knell missed the front-end of a 1-and-1 — though he missed both shots from the line.

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The Cougars, though, didn’t get a quality look, and the Utes prevailed.

In two games against BYU last season, Dawes averaged 15.5 minutes, 5.5 points and 5 rebounds.

He’ll be tasked to play a much bigger role this year for Utah, alongside the team’s other top playmakers, guards Terrence Brown and Don McHenry.

The Utes (8-7, 0-2 Big 12) are the decided underdog in the latest matchup of these rivals — BYU (14-1, 2-0 Big 12) is given a 89% win probability, according to KenPom.

The expectation is that BYU, with its roster headlined by AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Rob Wright III, will break the Utes’ two-game winning streak in the series at the Huntsman.

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Dybantsa, the projected high lottery pick, has scored more than 20 points in the Cougars’ last eight games. Jensen said the Utes will throw multiple defenders at him, but it will be a team effort in trying to contain one of the country’s top talents.

“For somebody like that, just make sure everybody’s on the same team scheme,” Okonkwo said. “They’ve got five. We’ve got five.

“He’s a pretty good offensive player. Make sure we’re all adjusted to limiting their team offense when he’s in the game and executing properly when he’s out the game. Just playing together, being a team together and locking in through one through five.”

One weird quirk to the rivals’ schedules this season is that they won’t have to wait long for the rematch. BYU will host the return game at the Marriott Center in two weeks, on Jan. 24.

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While Jensen said the latest rivalry matchup didn’t change the day-to-day approach to Utah’s pursuit of progression, it gives them an opportunity to make a statement against a program the caliber of BYU’s.

“I’m just trying to get the point across to them, (it’s a) great opportunity for them to play a team as good as BYU. … That’s why you play basketball — for opportunities like this.”

Cornerback is a position of interest for the Utah Utes in the transfer portal, and on Friday, they took the first step toward filling out that room.

Akron cornerback Elijah Reed will be transferring to Utah, according to a report from On3’s Steve Wiltfong Friday evening.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound redshirt junior had 47 tackles, two interceptions, a sack and four pass breakups last season for the the Zips. He had a Pro Football Focus grade of 77.6.

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Prior to his two seasons at Akron, Reed spent a year with Kentucky.

Starting cornerback Scooby Davis will return to the Utes for his senior season, but with Smith Snowden transferring and Blake Cotton out of eligibility, Utah will be replacing two of its starting corners in 2026.

The contenders for the open starting cornerback jobs include Rock Caldwell, Jason Stokes Jr. and JC Hart. Reed will provide the room with depth and could compete for a spot in the rotation.

Reed is the fourth defensive player to transfer to Utah this offseason, joining Oklahoma safety Marcus Wimberly, Wyoming defensive tackle Lucas Samsula and North Texas defensive end Ethan Day.

Just days after Utah transfer cornerback Smith Snowden announced that he’ll visit the Oregon Ducks in the near future, another member of the Utes‘ secondary has announced the same intentions.

First reported by CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz, Utah transfer safety Tao Johnson “plans to visit UCLA and Oregon in the coming days.” The former standout Ute has already visited Ole Miss and Kentucky.

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Johnson is rated as three-star in the transfer portal and is ranked as the No. 16 safety and No. 248 player overall. The 6-foot-1, 193-pounder was a four-star athlete in the class of 2022 out of Idaho Falls, ID.

Johnson saw time early at Utah, starting 12 games in 2023 as a redshirt freshman before starting 11 games in 2024. He had even more of an impact for the 11-2 Utes this season, as he amassed 51 tackles, four passes defensed and two interceptions.

With a significant number of Oregon secondary members entering the transfer portal themselves, adding at the position has to be near the top of the list for head coach Dan Lanning. In Johnson, he could add an experienced player to the safety room, a trait that could potentially be missing if junior Dillon Thieneman declares for the NFL draft.

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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Former Utah S Tao Johnson plans to visit Oregon Ducks in coming days

New York • The organ arrived from Utah on a warm August morning. Greeted by holy water, incense and slide whistles, it came in a 53-foot-long truck that was double-parked on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The Church of the Epiphany’s priests clambered up on the truck’s loading dock, tossed on stoles and blessed the long-awaited instrument. Their prayers were punctuated by the sound of confetti cannons shot off by about 30 parishioners.

Then, for hours, children, adults and elders into their 90s hoisted pipes and boxes up flights of stairs to the church’s second-floor sanctuary. The biggest spectacle was the entrance of the 600-pound organ console, which parishioners and organ builders spent over 30 minutes wrangling up an external staircase.

“What has been the most beautiful part of this organ is the way it has brought our entire community together,” Denise Cruz, a vestry member, speech pathologist and mother of two, told Religion News Service. “It was all hands on deck.”

Even with reports of declining worship attendance in the U.S. — and an overall reduction in the numbers of professional organists — some churches are investing in new versions of the age-old instrument to fill their sanctuaries with music and possibly attract community members to come inside. The new organ on East 74th Street joins others in New York City, where a special concert series introduced new instruments at Trinity Church in September and at St. Thomas Church in 2018.

To the Rev. Matthew Dayton-Welch, the new, handcrafted organ at Church of the Epiphany represents more than a commitment to quality music; it is emblematic of the final phase of a multiyear, $70 million effort to relocate and rebuild the Episcopal congregation, an investment in community as much as sound. The organ costs totaled $2.5 million.

“So many churches make difficult decisions because they’re shrinking and they’re consolidating and they’re trying to survive. And that wasn’t the case here,” Dayton-Welch, the church’s rector, said. “This was the church that was healthy, but it was still willing to risk everything it had in order to create an even better platform in a city where churches don’t get up and move.”

In 2018, space constraints led the nearly 200-year-old Episcopal parish to consider moving from its location at the time, on York Avenue. The congregation set its eyes on the former Jan Hus Presbyterian Church, a larger space just one block west that needed a remodel. But, as Dayton-Welch put it, “crossing First Avenue, for us, we might as well have been crossing the Red Sea.”

The church’s then-rector, the Rev. Jennifer Anne Reddall, was elected bishop of Arizona, propelling Church of the Epiphany into an unexpected rector search. Then, a 2020 excavation of the new property revealed that it sat over a natural creek, and the threat of flooding required a redesigned building foundation.

“We had things flood in the basement of the church,” said Christian Vanderbrouk, who has attended Epiphany for about a decade.

Located in the middle of a medical hub, the church’s community was also hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Congregants recall refrigerated morgue trucks circling the neighborhood. And in 2021, hot steel beam rafters didn’t cool as expected, briefly setting the church ablaze.

“You had a flood, a fire and a plague,” said Dayton-Welch, who arrived at the church in 2023, by which time the church had officially moved to its current location on East 74th Street.

Meanwhile, Church of the Epiphany contracted with Bigelow & Co. Organ Builders in American Fork, Utah, in 2020 to design a new organ for the new space. Bigelow founder Michael Bigelow is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his workshop is in an old Latter-day Saint meetinghouse whose tall ceilings allow for organ assembly.

In April, RNS visited Bigelow’s workshop, where builders were completing the trackers, the mechanical linkages that pull open the valves releasing air into the correct pipe. Like most of Bigelow’s organs, the Epiphany organ uses mechanical tracker action in contrast to electric-action pipe organs, where pressing a key sends an electric signal to open the valve under the corresponding pipe.

Initially, the organ’s sound had a German flair, focused on volume and power, but church leaders’ feedback led the builders to swap some of the neo-Baroque style stops in favor of producing a more expressive, versatile sound.

“That decision was made basically to better serve the Anglican style of liturgy,” said Conner Kunz, an experienced woodworker and member of the Bigelow team. He said Bigelow added a Flute Celeste stop, creating an “ethereal, sort of wavy, shimmery effect” that is “less boisterous than our shrieky little harmonic pipes that are sort of traditional in the neo-Baroque style.”

Builders were also completing an initial phase of voicing the pipes, cutting the ends, adjusting the openings and nicking the edges to shape the sound. David Chamberlin, the tonal director and vice president of Bigelow, is also an organist, with a master’s degree in organ performance. He oversaw the voicing, blowing on each pipe to test the sound quality.

“We want to do something that will create, uplift, enrich, spiritually, the lives of our listeners,” he said.

By late summer, the organ had been disassembled and loaded into semitrucks. To prepare for its arrival, the church building underwent a litany of preparations. A team of engineers and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning workers reset electrical lines, adjusted the temperature and humidity, and excavated holes in the 140-year-old brick wall to create pathways for the air system “so the organ’s lungs can breathe,” Dayton-Welch explained.

He said that, typically, you build an instrument after a room, but the construction of the new location created an opportunity for both to be designed in tandem. “The room is part of the organ, the room is part of the instrument,” he said.

Church of the Epiphany leaders envision the organ not solely as a source of music for their sanctuary, but as a tool to bring people in — and not solely for Sunday morning worship, where 60 to 80 people gather each week. They hope to build on already developed relationships, with decadeslong members going to dinner with young couples who are newly attending, and the church continuing its Wednesday night dinner program that feeds housing-insecure neighbors, college students and others needing a meal.

“What we’re trying to do is meet the needs of our community by creating a place of belonging,” Dayton-Welch said. “And our hope is that the music program facilitates that.”

Alex Nguyen, who began as Epiphany’s new director of music in September, envisions using nontraditional ways to introduce the organ to the community, such as hosting jazz ensembles or multimedia events.

“Of course we will have recitals,” he said, “but I think we’d like to try some different things, unconventional pairings with the organ, doing things with the kids to help create that interest.”

Cruz, who lives near Epiphany and was first inspired to attend in 2023, after a hospitalization, said the church has “felt like home” since day one. Anticipating the organ, she said, has been part of what’s drawn the congregation together, and she compared the instrument’s arrival to a birth.

“The organ has almost breathed a new sense of life or purpose,” she said, “and we get to share now this musical ministry with our community.”

Andrew Gingery, vice president of Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America, a trade organization, said some churches — often Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran or Presbyterian — continue to appreciate pipe organs. And high-quality organ building companies are “all very busy right now,” since the end of the height of the pandemic.

“There are still churches with means, and they want to have good music,” said Gingery, who is also executive vice president of C.B. Fisk, a pipe organ builder based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which is developing an organ for the St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral in New York for 2027. “That’s one of the things that makes them an active church. Frankly, you put on a good show and people are likely to come.”

This past fall, Epiphany’s congregation heard the organ played during worship for the first time. Though the voicing of the organ pipes wasn’t yet complete, parishioners told RNS that even hearing the unfinished organ was profoundly moving. On Tuesday, the Feast of Epiphany, which celebrates the wise men’s visit to the infant Jesus, the voicing process was nearing completion. The organ will be blessed Tuesday by the bishop of New York.

Cruz said that for her Puerto Rican family, Epiphany, also known as Three Kings Day, is “almost bigger than Christmas.”

“We’re all like little kids,” she said, “waiting to see how it is going to sound that day when it’s absolutely, fully complete.”

Vanderbrouk, who served as junior warden when the plans for the organ were first made, noted that Epiphany’s congregation has moved numerous times over the nearly two centuries it’s been around. To him, the organ is now like an anchor for the “itinerant” church.

“It’s a signal to the parish and to our neighbors that after all that moving and construction, we’re fully invested, and we’re here to stay,” he said. “There’s a sense of permanence.”