DEATH VALLEY, Calif. -- Many visitors have enjoyed the sounds of the Welte pipe organ at Scotty's Castle over the years.

With modern technology it is possible to have the organ play without an organist sitting at the console. Using that technology to play the organ preserves the historic console. What is missing is the spontaneous, human equation.

Once each year visitors have a chance to experience that human equation.

The dates for this year's concerts are June 19 and 20. The Friday night performance will be at 7 p.m. There will be a twin bill Saturday -- the first at 5:30 p.m., the second at 7 p.m.

The ticket price will be $30 per person. The money will help with the annual maintenance and tuning of the pipe organ and the maintenance of the Deagan chimes in the chimes tower.

There are only 40 seats for each concert, and every performance in the past two years has sold out.

Coming from Portland, Ore., Jonas Nordwall will play the Scotty's Castle pipe organ this year.

Nordwall is a very experienced concert and theater organist although he started by playing the accordion at the age of 4.

After expanding to organ and piano lessons at 10, he concentrated on classical playing. Nordwall has been a church organist for many years and is also the organist for the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. His theater organ experience is just as wide, playing professionally in the 1960s and '70s, leading him to be the senior staff organist for the Organ Grinder Corp. in the '70s and '80s.

He has also been a featured artist for many American Theater Organ Society national and regional conventions.

To make reservations, call the Death Valley Natural History Association at 760-786-2146 ext. 10. For more information call Scotty's Castle at 760-786-2392 or check the Web site at www.nps.gov/deva.

Nordwall will have a few of his CDs available for purchase in the bookstore on the nights of the performances.