May 2026

Over nearly fifty years in operation, Wallace & Co. Pipe Organ Builders of Gorham, Maine, has had the pleasure of being involved with the restoration of dozens of organs by the Hook brothers. This includes restoring and relocating E. & G. G. Hook Opus 173 to the small town of Boom, Belgium, as well as renovating Hook & Hastings Opus 1573 for the Eastman School of Music. In recent years we have spent time getting to know the “stock model” instruments of the 1880s and 1890s, with a focus towards the documentation of pipework and mechanical systems.

Belgian-American organist, pianist, pedagogue, and writer Camil Van Hulse (1897–1988) was also a prolific composer and influential musician whose career bridged Western European and American traditions in the twentieth century. He is known best for his solo organ and sacred choral music and contributed significantly to the musical communities in Tucson, Arizona, and Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. Though he was born and educated in Belgium, Van Hulse moved to the United States after suffering gas poisoning from trench warfare in World War I, ultimately settling in Tucson, Arizona.

The far side of the world

John Ezra Gilbert