C. B. Fisk has completed major renovation of their Opus 75 at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The three-manual organ comprises 35 independent voices and 2,460 pipes, with suspended mechanical action. Manual/Pedal compass: 56/30.
Opus 75 was originally built in 1976, concurrent with the extensive renovation of Crawford Hall at what was then the North Carolina School of the Arts.
The renovation included:
• Releathered the manual and (two) pedal bellows of the organ. (Tricky removal, but thankfully we didn’t have to cut any structural supports.)
• Solidified and reduced noise in the mechanical stop action (involved removing pipework on the Great and Positiv, sometimes several times, to mitigate slider vibration issues).
• Made and installed new Swell shades and frames (in the upward-facing diagonal sections of the swell). Originally, there were only swell shutters on these side diagonals of the upper case, facing up to the ceiling. The old shades were of the very light “airplane wing” variety and did not hold the sound in—tight Swells were not considered terribly crucial in the 1970s. An older version of solid shades with interlocking edge profiles had already been added to the front of the Swell at some point in the past.
• Modified Pedal key action and installed new Fisk-style concave-parallel pedalboard (30-note, flat/parallel, but with the tops of the naturals and sharps concave, and the front of the sharps radiating).
• Installed and voiced a new full-length, conical Pedal Basson 16′ (a French stop) to replace the original cylindrical Bassoon 16′ (a Germanic stop).
• Installed and voiced a new Great Open Flute 4′ to replace the original Clarion 4′.
• Lowered cutups on the Great Prestant 8′ (façade pipes)
• Adjusted voicing of Great fluework as necessary on Great 8′, 4′, 2′, and Mixture.
• Regulated the existing reeds of the organ.
• Replaced tuning wires on the Swell Hautbois 8′. Adjusted voicing of notes 1–24. (Soldered up the large slots at the top of the bells, and put new, small slots at the very bottom of the bells. Also weighted the tongues in the bottom two octaves to soften and mellow.)
• Regulated the mechanical key action. (It has aluminum trackers, but does have adjustable Heuss nuts in necessary places.)
• Removed all stop knobs (a truly laborious process involving a lot of steam), had them re-engraved, refilled the engraving, reinstalled them.
• Cleaned and re-oiled the console.
• Through-tuned the organ.
The organ is featured on the cover of the February 2026 issue of The Diapason:
https://www.thediapason.com/content/cover-feature-fisk-opus-74-university-north-carolina-school-arts https://www.thediapason.com/sites/diapason/files/Diap0226_FullIssue.pdf
For information: cbfisk.com/
