David E. Wallace & Co., LLC, Pipe Organ Builders of Gorham, Maine, is celebrating its 35th anniversary during 2017. The firm, founded in 1982 as a pipe organ service company, has grown over the years, expanding from restorations and renovations of existing organs to building new instruments. Organs from the shop are located in churches, schools, and private studios around the United States and Europe. The firm provides historically informed restorations of existing organs where appropriate or renovations based on the original builder’s intentions. Wallace & Co. uses historic woodworking and joinery methods in the building of new mechanical-action organs.
Company founder David Wallace apprenticed as an organ builder during his college years and started his own shop upon returning to Maine after a career as a foreign language translator. Having grown up in and around his father’s shop, Wallace’s son Nick (a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2015) joined the company after also apprenticing in pipe organ building and upon graduating from the University of Southern Maine School of Music. For information: www.wallacepipeorgans.com.
