New Organs

Marceau Pipe Organ Builders, Seattle, Washington

Kent Lutheran Church, Kent, Washington

Building for an unfinished room: The value of experience and documentation

Landmark pipe organs come in a variety of forms, and lucky builders are usually afforded several such instruments over the course of a career. Rarely does one build for a truly landmark building. The Kegg company was chosen for one such building. 

Marceau Pipe Organ Builders, Seattle, Washington

Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic Church, Everett, Washington

This year, the Schantz Organ Company is proud to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Since our 1873 founding, five generations of Schantz family members have led our staff of artisans and musicians. More than 3,000 pipe organs have been built and installed across the United States as well as Australia. They have been installed in churches of every denomination, as well as concert halls, hospital chapels, Masonic temples, sanatoriums, synagogues, orphanages, residences, and even a penitentiary chapel. 

Philadelphia’s Society Hill

From the builder

From the builder

When Father Steven Wilson, rector of Grace Church, first invited us to submit a proposal for a new pipe organ, he had my undivided attention from the start. Father Steve spoke of a historic 1869 Episcopal church with a distinguished tradition of liturgy and music, as well as a longtime focus on drama and the visual arts. Subsequent conversations led to the commissioning of our Opus 12, whose future arrival both church and organ builder looked forward to with fine enthusiasm.

Schoenstein & Co., Benicia, California

Saint Alban’s Episcopal Church, Waco, Texas

Fabry, Inc., Antioch, Illinois

Saint Laurence Catholic Church, Elgin, Illinois

The Marcussen organ in Wiedemann Hall—The vision realized

Flexibility is the key

The new instrument for Notre Dame Seminary of New Orleans is a two-manual organ. In spite of its relatively moderate size, however, it is designed to be more flexible in its use than many of its three-manual counterparts. This is made possible primarily by the careful choice of stops and console controls by sacred music director Max Tenney in collaboration with the builder.

The masked organ man

David E. Wallace & Company, LLC, Gorham, Maine

Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Jay, Maine

Introduction

Designing the ultimate keydesk

From the builder

As I contemplated writing this article about the new pipe organ for Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Pierce, Florida, many things came to mind, several of them cathartic and all of them personally important. Fort Pierce is a location where, as they say, I have “roots.” I was born in the Fort Pierce area in 1967, and was baptized at the First United Methodist Church. In the ensuing years, my family would continue to come back to this community to visit, to rest, and for recreation.

From the organ builder

When all the stars line up as they have for this project, a happy outcome is almost a sure thing. Right from the beginning, several years ago, when I was invited to submit a proposal for a new organ at Saint George’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia, all the different components of a good chance were there.

Editor's note: Click on the link above to view the front cover of the April 1951 issue of The Diapason and announcement of Opus 1132 for the Church of the Redeemer, New Haven, Connecticut.

The organ’s first career

In 1951 New Haven’s Church of the Redeemer, founded in 1838, moved into a neo-colonial structure designed by prominent local architect Douglas Orr. The new church was located in the city’s East Rock neighborhood and quickly took its place among Orr’s other distinguished buildings that remain popular to the present day.

Quite understandably, the Muller Pipe Organ Company is sometimes mistaken for the now defunct M. P. Möller Organ Company. We have answered countless emails and phone calls from across the country that begin with “We have one of your organs from . . .,” and we very politely explain that we are not the same company. It is possible the confusion may have been magnified had our ancestors decided to keep the umlaut over the “u”!