A spaghetti dinner fundraiser featuring live music by Denfeld students and alumni will be held on Friday, October 24 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Denfeld High School. Performances by Denfeld students will include choral, strings and band. Denfeld High School alumni and current Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra members violinist Laurie Bastian, violist Ron Kari and cellist Byron Klimek, will also be featured. Proceeds will benefit Denfeld music programs and restoration of the Denfeld auditorium pipe organ.Tickets are available online at dhorpa.org or at the door. Student/youth ticket $5; adult ticket $10. A gluten-free meal option is available.

Denfeld High School offers a comprehensive range of musical programs,including concert band, string orchestra, jazz band, pep band, and marching band, alongside a choir program and annual theater productions
that showcase musical talent. Students can also participate in smaller ensembles like jazz combos, as well as pit orchestras for shows. The school is known for its vibrant music scene, including traditional events like
the annual lip-sync video and contributions to community performances,such as the Christmas City of the North Parade.

Fully restored in 2007, Denfeld’s 1,940-seat auditorium was designed as a municipal gathering space with a formal entrance and box office accessible from the street for the public. In the 1920s, area merchants and Denfeld High School students and staff worked together to raise money to buy a George Kilgen and Son pipe organ with percussion to be installed as the crowning jewel for this public community space. It was dedicated on June 14, 1927, in the newly completed school by the “spirited merchants and residents of Duluth” with a celebratory concert.

For more than seventy years, this grand organ was used for concerts and accompanied choirs and public events, but now its voice is silent. For years, Denfeld seniors marched to the music of the organ at graduation time. The organ is historically significant because it is one of only two pipe organs installed in Minnesota high schools--Duluth Denfeld and HibbingHigh School--for both school and community use.