Robert L. Sipe dead at 83

Samuel Kummer

Samuel Kummer, 56, born February 28, 1968, in Stuttgart, Germany, died April 23, 2024, after collapsing in the Dresden Hauptbahnhof awaiting a train to travel to Würzburg for teaching duties. He studied church music at the State University for Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart, developing a broad repertoire in the organ classes of Ludger Lohmann, Christoph Bossert, and Werner Jacob. He developed his skills as an organ improviser, for which he received an award in his Church Music A Examination, with Wolfgang Seifen, Willibald Betzler, and Hans Martin Corrinth. He participated in masterclasses with Marie-Claire Alain, Daniel Roth, Hans Fagius, and Lorenzo Ghielmi. Kummer was a winner of international organ competitions, such as Concours L’Europe and L’Orgue Maastricht in 1996 and the International Organ Competition Odense in 1998.

Since 1998 Kummer had performed in many European countries, Central America, the United States, and Japan. He appeared in venues in Versailles, Brussels, Riga, Cologne, Regensburg, and in concert halls such as the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and in Tokyo Opera City at Suntory Hall and Lilia Hall. He concertized at festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Styriarte Festival, and Hildebrandt Days in Naumburg. As a soloist he appeared with the Russian State Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Dresden Philharmonic. In the summer of 2003 at the invitation of Utah State University, he conducted an improvisation seminar for organists and pianists there.

After seven years as district cantor in Kirchheim unter Teck, Kummer was appointed to the Frauenkirche in Dresden in 2005, where he was heard almost daily until 2022. He initiated several organ concert series regularly featuring the important Dresden organs at the Frauenkirche with its Kern organ, the Hofkirche with its Silbermann organ, the Kreuzkirche with its Jehmlich organ, and the Kulturpalast with its Eule organ.

Beginning in 2007 he taught organ improvisation and organ literature at the Dresden University of Church Music. He recently had been a lecturer for improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar and gave masterclasses for organ and improvisation at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg during the spring 2024 semester. He was a jury member at international organ competitions. Samuel Kummer’s CDs with organ works by Bach and Duruflé as well as Vierne, Symphonie III and Symphonie V (winning a Diapason d’Or award), received praise in national and international reviews, and his performances were frequently broadcast on radio. For his recording of Bach’s The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080, on the Hildebrandt organ (1746) of the Wenzelskirche in Naumburg, he was awarded the German Record Critics’ Award in 2021, among others. In addition to his arrangements for organ, he intensified his compositional activities in 2016 and performed his own works frequently. Kummer was married to Irena Renata Budryté-Kummer.

—Marko Heese

Robert L. Sipe
 

Robert L. Sipe, 83, died May 24 in Dallas, Texas, after a long illness. He was a veteran Dallas organbuilder who over 60 years produced new and rebuilt instruments across the United States. Following pioneering 1950s United States installations by Beckerath and Flentrop, Sipe was the first Texas builder after Otto Hofmann to wholeheartedly embrace neo-Baroque principles of mechanical action, slider windchests, low wind pressures, freestanding encasement, and lean and brilliant sonorities. As a Baylor University student, the Dallas native began helping with organ maintenance, and in 1960 he formed his own firm with Rodney Yarbrough. Their compact two-manual 1962 instrument in St. Stephen United Methodist Church in the Dallas suburb Mesquite, in a free-form concrete building of live acoustics, created a sensation. The following summer, Sipe went on an exhaustive tour of new and old European organs, recording his impressions in a detailed diary.

After Yarbrough’s tragic paralysis in a 1964 traffic accident, Sipe continued on his own, creating church organs in Texas and then beyond, including teaching and practice instruments for Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He took a somewhat eclectic approach to the neo-Baroque aesthetic. For example, larger instruments included more fully developed Swell divisions, and he employed electro-pneumatic action when mechanical action was not physically practical. He was particularly skilled at recycling and revoicing older pipework, and his instruments had a finesse of voicing rare among builders in that style. His influence spread further via colleagues who went on to establish their own organbuilding firms, notably George Bozeman, Roy Redman, and the late Marvin Judy.

By the late 1960s the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Co. belatedly decided it needed to embrace the growing enthusiasm for mechanical-action organs. With a new infusion of money from investor David Knutson, Sipe was tapped to head the tracker initiative, and in 1970 he became the company’s vice president and tonal director. Some mechanical-action organs that ultimately bore the Aeolian-Skinner nameplate were actually contracted by Sipe before joining the firm. The sizable three-manual organ at Zumbro Lutheran Church in Rochester, Minnesota, built in 1968, had a second nameplate citing design, installation and voicing by Sipe. A showpiece for Aeolian-Skinner’s new venture, it was featured on a series of King of Instruments recordings by Robert T. Anderson, professor of organ at Southern Methodist University.

Tracker-action organs were hardly able to save Aeolian-Skinner, which had been in precarious financial condition for years. After the firm shuttered in 1972, Sipe returned to Dallas and resumed building organs under his own name. This third phase of his career yielded notable instruments at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa (1977); Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1979, with a Bombarde division); the Assembly Hall of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah (1983); and First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, Texas (1998). In later years, Sipe collaborated with Allen Organs on some effective mixes of pipes and digital voices.

For all his roots in German and Dutch neo-Baroque aesthetics, Sipe was increasingly fond of Anglican church music, and in later years he became a regular worshiper at Dallas’s Episcopal Church of the Incarnation. The 2012 organ in Northway Christian Church in Dallas is a particularly effective example of the warmer, more eclectic sonic approach of some of his late instruments.

Robert L. Sipe is survived by his son Christopher Sipe, daughter-in-law Alx Nixon, grandson Ilya Nixon-Sipe; daughter Katie Sipe. He is also survived by his former spouse and mother of his children, Susan Sipe.

—Scott Cantrell

Richard Bond, 73, died in Portland, Oregon, February 17. Bond first became interested in organbuilding at age fifteen. After graduating with a degree in engineering science from the University of Redlands, Redlands, California, he began his organbuilding career in the company of other builders in Los Angeles, including Manuel Rosales and Michael Bigelow. In 1976, Bond and his wife Roberta moved to Portland to found their own firm. Under his leadership, Bond Organ Builders, Inc., has built thirty-six new organs and maintains instruments throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as in California and Montana. The firm has also completed numerous rebuilds, additions projects, restorations, and relocations of significant historical instruments. For many years, Richard Bond was curator of the famous hanging Casavant organ at Portland’s Lewis & Clark College. More recently he took up the care of the Rosales organ at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, also in Portland, where he and Roberta sang in the choir. In addition to his membership in the American Institute of Organbuilders, Bond served on the Historic Organs Committee of the Organ Historical Society. Bond Organ Builders, Inc., holds membership in the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America and the International Society of Organbuilders. Richard Bond is survived by his wife Roberta and a son Tim.

John C. Gumpy, 80, of Macungie, Pennsylvania, died September 29, 2019. Born in 1939 in Danville, Pennsylvania, John owned and ran Lehigh Organ Company for over thirty years, building and rebuilding organs. For sixteen years, he also served as organist for Trinity Episcopal Church, Easton, Pennsylvania, home to his Opus 128, a three-manual instrument of thirty-six ranks. His home congregation was Grace Church, Bethlehem. He was a founding member of the American Institute 
of Organbuilding. For his projects, Gumpy generally favored electric-valve windchests and open-toe nickless voicing for chorus work; he was a skilled recycler of older pipes as well. Some Lehigh projects included Opus 30 at First United Church of Christ in Reading, Pennsylvania (1986), in which a 1958 M. P. Möller organ was expanded to 80 ranks, including a new Great division and other material. John C. Gumpy is survived by his wife of fifty-seven years, Margery; son, Edward J. Gumpy and wife Kathryn of Vernon, New Jersey; daughter, Katherine E. and husband Jeffrey Crawford of Golden, Colorado; and grandson, Logan Gibson Gumpy. A memorial service was held October 4, 2019, at New Goshenhoppen U.C.C. in East Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Homer H. Lewis, Jr., a reed voicer who worked for both M. P. Möller and his own firm Trivo, died May 4 in Hagerstown, Maryland. Known familiarly as “Junie,” Lewis was 93. In 1942, while still a high school senior, Lewis began employment at Möller doing defense work. In 1943, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving aboard the USS Bronstein, a destroyer escort, as a fire control man, Third Class, in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. At the conclusion of World War II, Lewis returned to Möller to become a reed voicer alongside his uncle, Adolf Zajic (1909–1987), who had come to Möller from Welte-Tripp in 1931. In 1963, Lewis, Joseph E. Clipp, and Edward Lushbaugh founded the Trivo Company, initially as a part-time enterprise. In 1969, the partners incorporated the business as Trivo Company, Inc., to provide voicing and reconditioning of reed stops, as well as new pipes. Lewis retired from Möller in 1972. While continuing to work part time at Trivo, he taught principles of electricity at Victor Cullen Reform School for Boys in Sabillasville, Maryland, a correctional institute run by the State of Maryland. In 1974 when the state relocated the school, Lewis switched to full-time work at Trivo, and in 1983, Lewis and Clipp bought out Edward Lushbaugh’s share of Trivo. Lewis retired in 2012 at age 86. His career in the organ business spanned seven decades. Lewis was a member of the Improved Order of Red Men #84, Williamsport, Maryland; Washington County Amvets (Post 10), Hagerstown; and the American Legion. He was a founding member of the American Institute of Organbuilders. His wife, Nancy, who frequently joined her husband at AIO conventions, died last year.

Marvin Garrett Judy, 76, founder of Schudi Organ Company, died February 29. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1943, he moved with his family to Dallas, Texas, in 1952. He studied ’cello through high school and college years. After attending Southern Methodist University for several years, he left in 1963 to work for Robert Sipe and Rodney Yarbrough at the Sipe-Yarbrough Organ Company, Texas’s second 20th-century builder (after Otto Hofmann) to concentrate on mechanical key action. When Sipe went to the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company in that firm’s final years (1969–1972), Judy installed that firm’s organs in the south and southeastern states, a phase of his career that drew to a close with Aeolian-Skinner’s bankruptcy, Sipe’s return to Texas, and Judy’s founding of Schudi in Garland, Texas, in 1972. In all, the Schudi firm built twenty-seven new organs, primarily in Texas but also Oklahoma, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. Beginning with Opus 17 (1980), a two-manual tracker in Texarkana, Texas, the Schudi shop concentrated on mechanical action. Keyboards, slider windchests, key and stop actions, casework, and consoles were made in-house; pipes, blowers, and electronic components came from other firms. Schudi’s first instrument to draw national attention was a three-manual electric-slider instrument, Opus 6 of 1978, for St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Dallas. Opus 6 was expanded in 1987 and became widely noticed that year for Todd Wilson’s recording of the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé (DELOS 3047). As esteemed was the firm’s Opus 38 (1987) in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. In addition to servicing Schudi organs, Judy maintained those by others, notably his twenty-two-year curatorship of C. B. Fisk’s Opus 100 at Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas. In all of the shop’s endeavors, Marvin was surrounded by considerable talent: the conceptual and creative input of George Gilliam early on; long-term staffers Charles Leonard, Jim Lane, James Stillson, Jonathon Maedche, Ivan Witt, Szymon Januszkiewicz, and Piotr Bolesta; also the now-deceased David Zuber, Moises Carrasco, and E. O. Witt; the periodic support of friend and colleague Mark Lively; and through it all, the business and logistical support of Nanette Gordon, initially hired in 1980 to carve pipe shades. She and Marvin Judy married in 1983. The financial downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s dealt harshly with several organbuilding establishments, Schudi among them. Despite the loss of contracts and a reduction of scope, Judy persevered, with a genial nature and persistent work ethic that continued to the end. Even until his final months, he remained active in rebuilding and service work in the Dallas area. Marvin Judy is survived by his wife Nanette; his son, John Judy, of Savannah, Georgia; a daughter, Allison Gordon and Stephen Shein of Houston, Texas; and his brother, Dwight Judy, and sister-in-law, Ruth Judy of Syracuse, Indiana.  —Jonathan Ambrosino

David C. Scribner died April 16. Born September 21, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, he received most of his organ instruction as a student of Arthur C. Becker and René Dosogne at DePaul University. At Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Scribner became Becker’s assistant and then successor as organist. During his time in Chicago, Scribner was a member of the Windy City Gay Men’s Chorus. Scribner would move to San Francisco, California, Pensacola, Florida, and finally Little Rock, Arkansas. His most recent organist position was at Christ Episcopal Church, Little Rock, as a substitute. He also served as a vestryman of that parish, where he freely contributed computer expertise to allow the church to spread its ministry through social media. Having previously worked for other organ firms, Scribner spent the last twenty years at Nichols & Simpson Organbuilders in Little Rock. David Scribner was an active member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, the Organ Historical Society, the American Guild of Organists, the Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society, the Organ Media Foundation, and Pipechat.org, the latter being his creation. All these organizations he served in numerous ways, much of which involved his expert computer technical knowledge. In addition to his passion for the pipe organ, Scribner was a lifelong railroad enthusiast, greatly enjoying travel on Amtrak and anything else with a connection to train tracks. In this vein, he supported numerous historical clubs and railway museums. Per his wishes, Scribner’s cremains were interred in Christ Church, Little Rock, on May 1, as near to the organ as possible. A memorial organ concert in his honor will be scheduled in the future at Christ Church, where memorial donations may be made in his name.

William Chandler Teague, 97, died June 27. He was born July 8, 1922, in Gainesville, Texas, where he began musical training at age three with his mother. At age 12 he became the organist for a large Methodist church. As a teenager he studied organ in Dallas, Texas, and entered Southern Methodist University at age 16. His studies were interrupted when Alexander McCurdy invited him to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His studies at Curtis were interrupted by World War II, as he joined the United States Army Air Force as a chaplain’s assistant. He returned to Curtis after the war to study and serve as McCurdy’s assistant, playing for Sunday oratorio performances at First Presbyterian Church. Accompanying Teague to Philadelphia was his young bride, the former Lucille Ridinger, whom he had married during the war. They had met at a Methodist camp when they were 12 years old. Teague’s organ teachers included Dora Poteet Barclay, Alexander McCurdy, Marie-Claire Alain, Harold Gleason, and Catharine Crozier. After graduation from Curtis in 1948, Teague came to Shreveport, Louisiana, to accept the position of organist/choirmaster at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (now the location of The Church of the Holy Cross, St. Mark’s having relocated in 1954 and in 1990 became a cathedral) and a teaching position at Centenary College of Louisiana in the organ and sacred music departments. He taught for 44 years earning the rank of full professor. He was later designated Professor of Music Emeritus at the college, which granted him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. He served as accompanist as he and his wife traveled with the Centenary College Choir to various countries including China. He served St. Mark’s Cathedral for 39 years before being designated Organist Emeritus. Teague maintained an active concert career, performing in such venues as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria, Westminster Abbey, Trinity Church Wall Street and the Riverside Church in New York City, National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the armed forces academies. He was invited to play behind the Iron Curtain with concerts in East Berlin, Poland, and in other countries. He and Lucille were in East Berlin at the Wall when the first blows were struck to tear it down. He would perform in Japan, Australia, all over the United States and Europe, and in North Africa. In addition to solo organ concerts, William joined his son, Chandler, in presenting music for organ and percussion in concerts across the United States. Following his retirement from St. Mark’s Cathedral, Teague was interim organist for churches throughout the region. Teague was active in the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians, the Sewanee Music Conference, and the Evergreen Summer Conference. He was a Fellow in Church Music at Washington National Cathedral. For ten summers Teague was summer organist at St. Ann’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Kennebunkport, Maine. He was a founding member of Baroque Artists of Shreveport, founded the Great Masterpiece Series at St. Mark’s Cathedral, recorded a weekly organ concert for radio broadcast for eight years, trained thousands of choristers in the tradition of Anglican music, and played for hundreds of weddings, funerals, and festivals. Raven Recordings released a two-CD set of organ music performed by Teague at St. Mark’s Cathedral, The Aeolian-Skinner Sound (OAR-800), including works by Dupré, Messiaen, and Willan. In 1988, the City of Shreveport honored him with William C. Teague Day, and the Teague Music Scholarship was established at Centenary College. The Teague-Smith Scholarship Fund for young choristers was later established at St. Mark’s Cathedral. Teague is listed in volumes of Who’s Who including the International Who’s Who, and was recently honored by the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival. William Chandler Teague is survived by a son, Chandler Teague, and wife, Janis Adams Teague, of Shreveport, Louisiana; a daughter, Lynda Gayle Teague Deacon of Memphis, Tennessee; three grandchildren, Sandra Deacon, Clay Deacon, and Hunter Deacon; and four great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 77 years, Lucille Ridinger Teague. A combined service for Dr. and Mrs. Teague will be held at a later date. Memorials may be made to the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, 616 Jordan St., Shreveport, LA 71101; the Teague-Smith Scholarship Fund at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 908 Rutherford St., Shreveport, LA 71104; or the Teague Music Scholarship Fund at Centenary College, 2911 Centenary Blvd., Shreveport, LA 71104.

David Engen holds degrees in organ from St. Olaf College and the University of Iowa, and a master’s degree in software engineering from the University of St. Thomas. He has been in the organ business since 1970. He is currently president of Grandall & Engen, LLC, in Minneapolis where he shares duties with vice-president David Grandall.

Editor’s note: many of the organs mentioned in this article can be found with stoplists and pictures at the website of the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Charles George Hendrickson, 85, died at his home in Saint Peter, Minnesota, on December 17, 2020. He was born June 10, 1935, in Willmar, Minnesota, to Roy and Frances (Eklund) Hendrickson. Roy Hendrickson was an attorney and member of the board of directors at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, from which Charles graduated in 1957. His intent was to continue in nuclear physics, but he once admitted to me that during his time of graduate study at the University of Minnesota, aspects of nuclear physics were “beyond me.” He taught physics at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and Northeast State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

I believe it was after his father’s death that his mother became secretary to the president of Gustavus Adolphus. It was she who introduced Charles to the woman he would marry, Birgitta Gillberg, a language teacher at Gustavus Adolphus and later at nearby Mankato State University. He taught physics at Mankato State, and he and Birgitta were married in Sweden in 1964. They had two sons: Eric and Andreas. Birgitta preceded him in death by two years.

In 1964 he started building his first organ in rented space in an old canning plant in Winthrop, an instrument for nearby First Lutheran Church. The three-manual organ of thirty-four ranks, which has since been enlarged, had the first Rückpositiv division in Minnesota. David N. Johnson, then of Saint Olaf College, played the dedication recital.

Philosophy

I first met Charles at about the time the Winthrop organ was completed in 1966. He was measuring pipes in the new Holtkamp organ (Job Number 1778) at my home church in Minneapolis, Westwood Lutheran Church, Saint Louis Park. He told me of the upcoming David Johnson recital at Winthrop, which I attended. I started working for him in 1970 and continued for much of the time until 1984.

Charles was a fan of the architect Mies van der Rohe and ascribed to his “less is more” philosophy (although in the shop we often changed it to “more is more”). Most of his designs with casework are simple boxes. He also much admired the work of the organbuilder Robert Noehren, whose unit organs on all-electric action were a big influence.

More than one hundred organs came from the Hendrickson shop, ranging in size from a one-stop, one-rank portable “organetto” (Opus 19) to his “magnum” Opus 92 of four manuals and seventy ranks for Wayzata Community Church in Wayzata, Minnesota. Most of his organs were built for churches, but many were built for colleges (both concert halls and practice rooms), and several were built for individuals. There was a series of three three-stop portativ organs built for touring groups, the first for the Saint Olaf Choir, designed to fit through the door of a Greyhound bus.

Many organs had mechanical action, and in general the smaller organs were unit organs on all-electric action. These followed the Noehren philosophy of unification, where octave unification was avoided if possible.

One of Charles’s notable innovations was the use of plywood Subbass pipes. Built in the shop, they were made of three-quarter-inch plywood. In the ravages of Minnesota’s wild seasonal humidity swings, almost every old organ we encountered had splits in the big pedal pipes. Plywood avoids this, and these pipes were used in virtually every organ. He also exclusively used aluminum for the façade pipes above 4′, made by Justin Matters of South Dakota.

Another unique feature of the small unit organs has to do with celeste and tierce stops. In a very small organ it is difficult to justify the expense of either of these. Both are typically the softest stops, and both can be either string or flute scale. We found that if the tierce is borrowed from the celeste (tuned flat instead of sharp), you can have both in a single stop by adding just a few more pipes. One tunes the tierce perfectly from middle C up, then tunes from there down for a pleasant flat celeste (beats tend to get too wild in that range if tuned to the perfect tierce). It is an inexpensive compromise that is of great benefit to a tiny organ.

Friends and collaborations

Some of the best organs to come from the shop during my time were designed in conjunction with friends who acted as consultants. Among those were Merrill N. (“Jeff”) Davis, III, of Rochester, Minnesota, and William B. Kuhlman of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.

Both pushed Charles to some of his most inspired designs, visually and tonally. Opus 4 was a pair of positiv divisions added to a Wicks organ in memory of Jeff Davis’s first wife at the Congregational Church in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. In an acoustically dry room, these positivs pulled the sound of the enclosed Wicks into the church. This was but the first collaboration. Many other projects resulted in very unique and unusual instruments over the years.

Bill Kuhlman was behind what was to become the first mechanical-action organ constructed in Minnesota in the late twentieth century. This was a thirty-six-rank teaching organ for Luther College (Opus 10) in Decorah, Iowa. As a successful teacher, Bill had many students study on that organ who went on to careers in music.

Other consultants included Robert Kendall and Robert Thompson of Saint Olaf College and Kim Kasling, then of Mankato State University.

Significant instruments

I had personal experience and/or input in almost all of the organs from Opus 1 through Opus 70, and it would be tempting to tell stories of each one. Except for the three portativs, no two were alike. (Fritz Noack once told me that when you mass-produce organs, you have an opportunity to replicate your mistakes!)

One overriding memory I have is that every time we built a mechanical-action organ, the shop looked forward to building electric action. When we were lost in the wiring of electric-action instruments, we would long to build another tracker.

Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, Opus 10, two manuals, 36 ranks

After the Winthrop organ had launched the company (we cleaned and added to it some years later after a Christmas Eve fire), all organs through Opus 9 were built in the Hendrickson garage and backyard. Starting with the Luther College organ (Opus 10) the operation moved to the current shop location at the north end of Saint Peter in an industrial park. The shop was built during the winter of 1970–1971. During the first rainstorm in 1971 the skylights leaked, and several of us frantically covered the Luther windchests in the middle of the night to prevent damage.

There was a lot of overcompensation in design. The pallets were large, we had complex bleed holes in the channels, and we used foam slider seals. Having a heavy coupled action, it had optional electric couplers. The horizontal trumpet was on electric action and played at 16′, 8′, and 4′ on the Great and at 8′, 4′, and 2′ on the Pedal to create maximum “blast.” There were prepared stops in each division. Perhaps the most unusual feature was that the whole organ could be moved around Koren Chapel at Luther with an air flotation system by one person! Gerald Near wrote his Second Fantasy for the dedication concert.

Jensen-Noble Hall of Music was opened in late 1982 on the Luther campus, so the Hendrickson company was engaged to move the organ into a teaching studio in the spring and summer prior to the opening. Being the only employee left who had helped build it, I wound up in charge of disassembly and reinstallation. We were able to take what we had learned from building about a dozen tracker organs in the intervening years and apply those lessons to what became a successful renovation. Since there was no need for the flotation system in a studio, we removed it and built a new and more reliable pedal action in that space. Pallet openings and pallets were reduced in size, resulting in a lighter action that no longer needed electric couplers. The blast from the horizontal trumpet at multiple pitches was not needed in the smaller space, so the trumpet was placed on mechanical action and lower wind pressure, speaking from the Great channels. Three of the five prepared stops were added. It continues to function, fifty years after construction, as a teaching and practice organ under Bill Kuhlman’s successor, Gregory Peterson.

Saint John Lutheran Church, Owatonna, Minnesota, Opus 34, three manuals, 51 ranks

Saint John Lutheran Church is a huge A-frame building, but the typical front transepts are in the back balcony. Floor to ceiling windows in the balcony provide wonderful light, but the acoustic issues for a gallery organ are significant since glass does not reflect bass. Charles’s solution was to cantilever the main organ as far into the room as possible and to provide a very large Rückpositiv as well as a prominent horizontal trumpet.

Since there was virtually no unification on the manuals, I talked Charles into building slider windchests. We opted to try the Holtkamp slider chest design with all-electric magnets on the channels rather than pallets with pull-downs. Forty-five years later the organ continues to serve the church—as does Shirley Erickson, who was organist when the organ was installed!

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Mankato, Minnesota, Opus 35, three manuals, 59 ranks

Following right behind the 51-rank Owatonna organ, we tackled what would briefly become the largest mechanical-action organ in Minnesota. (The Fisk organ at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, Saint Paul, followed very soon thereafter.) Kim Kasling was consultant, and Jim Dorn was organist. An original plan for a high, stacked organ in the right front of the nave eventually became a balcony installation. Again, a large Rückpositiv was in the design, but the ancient church balcony could not hold its weight if placed in the normal location on the rail. It sits instead on the floor, right behind the keydesk, with new steel beams under the floor to hold the weight.

A huge Great division with two mixtures sits above a relatively small Swell, with Pedal split and across the back inside the organ. There are many pipes from the previous organ spread throughout, as well as a 32′ Bourdon from the old Soul’s Harbor organ in Minneapolis and a 16′ open wood diapason discarded from the Sipe rebuild of the organ at Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester, Minnesota. The church interior has been tastefully remodeled since the organ went in, and there is now less carpet than there had been.

First Lutheran Church, Saint Peter, Minnesota, Opus 45, two manuals (with a third coupler manual), 44 ranks

First Lutheran Church in Saint Peter was the Hendrickson family church. Founded in 1857 by Swedish immigrants, 164 years later it retains its Swedish roots, although services have been held in English for 100 years. It has always been closely connected with Gustavus Adolphus College, which is just a mile away. On Mother’s Day, May 13, 1962, the old church was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Charles was already involved in organ renovations, and there was an existing organ fund.

The firm of Harold Spitznagel and Associates of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, designed the new church to replace the old one on land purchased on the edge of town. The first service was held in the new edifice on September 5, 1965. The sanctuary was half a cube, 76 feet on each side and 40 feet high topped with clerestory windows. The congregation did not want to suffer another fire, so this building is made of concrete and brick. As a result, the sanctuary has incredible acoustics for music.

To avoid having a temporary electronic organ, Charles assembled parts he had on hand into an eight-rank exposed organ that he leased temporarily to the church. The four-second reverberation made this mongrel organ surprisingly successful. It was later rebuilt for another institution.

In 1975 plans began in earnest for a new organ. The original concept had four manuals with a Rückpositiv division. Fundraising and unrelated issues delayed the project, and in a period of high inflation the organ shrank by the month. We finally decided to start over and took the tonal design of the Luther College organ as a starting point. The entire Luther organ can be found within the specification of the First Lutheran organ. One major difference is inclusion of a coupler manual.

This became the flagship demonstration organ for the company, being located just a mile from the shop and in a room with incredible acoustics. What many do not realize is that the asymmetrical design of the organ case is inspired by the brick sculpture on the front wall of the church (the story of Creation). The pipe shades are inspired by the bird figures in that sculpture. The asymmetrical “Family of Man” and the birds are at the top.

Saint Wenceslaus Catholic Church, New Prague, Minnesota, Opus 47, three manuals, 43 ranks

Robert Thompson of nearby Saint Olaf College was consultant for this organ and gave the organ a decidedly French accent, although this is a congregation of Czech descendents. This was the only organ built during my time at the shop with supply house chests, ordered from Laukhuff. Robert Sperling always voiced in a Germanic style. Initially, the Recit 8′ flute sounded like a quintadena. After reworking it with higher cutups and nicks, it was the stop that elicited the most comments from visitors. Sperling thought he had ruined it. The whole time he was revoicing he grumbled that he was turning it into a 1920 Möller Melodia!

First Unitarian Church, Rochester, Minnesota, Opus 49, two manuals (with third coupler manual), 24 ranks

Merrill N. Davis, III, of Rochester was the consultant for this project. Fondly called “The Bell Organ,” the 2′ on the Ripieno division is a Glockenspiel; there is a wind-driven Zimbelstern; the Continuo mixture is a Glockenzimbel, which starts at 2⁄5′ pitch and includes a tierce on every note. The unison on the F above middle C is the F above high C of a 2′ and had to be voiced with a magnifying glass. Like First Lutheran Church, it has a third coupler manual. The casework is walnut, and the Continuo division in Rückpositiv position has no façade.

Saint John’s Lutheran Church, Kasson, Minnesota, Opus 57, two manuals, 29 ranks

Merrill N. Davis, III, was again consultant. Kasson is not far from Rochester. This organ was conceived with a big blockwerk on the Great based on a 16′ Principal with a big mixture. There are two cornets on the Great—a four-rank mounted cornet of flute scale, and a three-rank Sesquialtera of principal scale, along with a dark trumpet. Originally the Swell did not couple to either the Great or Pedal. These couplers have since been added. What started as an unsuccessful 1′ Principal on the Great was changed to 8⁄9′ to add spice to the ensemble and to the two cornets. The organ was originally tuned to Chaumont temperament.

Saint John’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Opus 63, three manuals, 47 ranks

Saint John’s Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis is one of the biggest rebuild projects we undertook. Hillgreen-Lane had rebuilt the previous organ (perhaps a Hall) in 1959 at 32 ranks. Our 1983 rebuild significantly enlarged the organ and made access for tuning and servicing much easier than it had been in the Hillgreen-Lane organ. Many ranks were retained. Much of the Pedal is recycled from the Hillgreen-Lane. A string had been converted into an 8′ Gelind Gedackt by Hillgreen-Lane, but the scale was very small and the caps did not seal. We rescaled it again. We presume it had been Hillgreen-Lane that had soldered two diapasons together end-to-end to make a 16′ Salicional, which was retained. This organ had one of the early multiplex relay systems, this one donated by Dirk Moibroeck of Cincinnati (ICMI).

Union Presbyterian Church, Saint Peter, Minnesota, Opus 64, two manuals, 11 ranks

Though far from a significant organ, Union Presbyterian Church is an example of the smaller all-electric unit organs that were quite successful. Union Church’s acoustics were horribly dry when the organ was designed, but when the chancel was modified for the new organ we discovered a small space with a very warm acoustic. When the organ was first played the room amplified it too much! We dropped the pressure and revoiced everything. For many years this was the location of a well-attended hymn festival, and the organ has often been used with various instruments. A small-scale trumpet was added in later years, and the relay and combination action were recently replaced with current technology. The 4′ Octave, mixture, and trumpet are on the right side near the console. The Bourdon/Rohrflute and 8′ Principal trebles are on the left side behind the choir. The Swell is in the middle behind the grill, with the largest 16′ Subbass pipes (plywood) on its roof. Organist at the time, Charles Eggert, was consultant.

Saint Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Opus 78, three manuals, 62 ranks

The two largest organs were built after I left, and I have never seen the Sioux Falls organ. Nonetheless, it is a significant instrument in a large and very reverberant space.

Wayzata Community Church, Wayzata, Minnesota, Opus 92, four manuals, 70 ranks

The company’s magnum opus is in a suburb west of Minneapolis. C. Charles Jackson gave funds for it, and Charles Hendrickson’s long friendship with sculptor Paul Granlund at Gustavus Adolphus was the genesis of the sculpture (“Aeneous Aegis”) in the middle of the organ case. For many years this was home to an extensive organ concert series under staff organist, Diana Lee Lucker. Charles attended most of these concerts. Following Diana Lee’s retirement, this series ceased.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Excelsior, Minnesota, Opus 111, two manual, 29 ranks

Trinity Episcopal Church had been home to a five-rank Möller organ (Opus 8026). The new organ was impetus for a complete church remodel project, which is quite successful with movable chairs and hard surfaces. The Hendrickson organ includes pipes from the Möller as well as pipes from a practice organ (Opus 20) built for the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire that was repurchased. Andreas Hendrickson designed the unusual façade.

Shop stories

The Luther College organ had a flotation system, which Charles developed the summer of 1971. Each iteration of his design resulted in the call to everyone in the shop to come and stand on a piece of plywood to see if it would float with the added weight. We eventually had a winner that was installed on the organ.

The Rochester Unitarian organ was playing in the shop when Jeff Davis came to see it. He did not like the relationship between the 4′ and 2′ of the Continuo division, so a new rank was ordered and the ranks affected were re-racked.

There was a fire at the shop on November 15, 2013, that originated in one of the light fixtures. Even though the majority of the building was left intact, insurance deemed the structure a loss, and a new building was put up in its place. Amazingly, only one wood pipe rank was in the shop at the time. The remainder of that particular project was stored down the hill in the nearby shop warehouse.

Children of the shop

Most organ shops have spinoffs, and Hendrickson’s shop was no exception. Notable among the “children” of the shop is Lynn Dobson, of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., of Lake City, Iowa, founded in 1974. I succeeded Robert Sperling as voicer in 1979 and remained until 1984. My company, Grandall and Engen, LLC, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, has been operating since 1984 and does tuning and enhancements for many clients in the Twin Cities area and western Wisconsin, including a number of universities. The third offshoot is Rob Hoppe, of Robert D. Hoppe & Associates of Algoma, Wisconsin, founded in 1986. He often builds new organs with digital enhancements. Charles’s two sons, Eric and Andreas, took over the business when Charles retired in 2015 and continue today.

Read more about Charles Hendrickson here.

Parsons Pipe Organ Builders, Canandaigua, New York, 100th Anniversary

This year, Parsons Pipe Organ Builders celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding and five generations of Parsons family members who have made pipe organs their vocation. Although the manufacturing workshop was established later, the family has been involved in the trade since the late nineteenth century. 

Gideon Levi Parsons apprenticed as a flue voicer with noted organbuilder John Wesley Steere and later married Steere’s niece, May Estelle Steere. Gideon continued his voicing career with John’s son, Frank, and later with Ernest M. Skinner, who purchased the Steere firm in 1921. The couple had two sons, Bryant Gideon (b. 1896) and Richard Levi (b. 1905). Both of Gideon’s sons apprenticed with the Steere firm, but only Bryant continued in organbuilding. Following in his father’s footsteps as a voicer was not an option for Bryant as tradesmen commonly held their skills closely for job security. Bryant worked in every department—from stacking lumber, shoveling sawdust, holding keys, and even began setting up organs on his own. However, when he returned to the factory, he was known as “the kid.” 

For a brief period prior to World War I, 16-year-old Bryant was hired by Professor Harry Jepson, head of the organ department at Yale University, to be curator of the renowned Newberry Memorial Organ, which he helped install. Originally built by the Hutchings-Votey firm in 1902, the organ was enlarged by J. W. Steere & Son in 1915. Bryant recalled that there was a secret button beneath the keys to activate the 32-foot reed so that only Professor Jepson could show the organ at its fullest.

Following time in the Navy during World War I, Bryant worked for the Bosch-Magneto Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, learning much about electricity (a concept quite new to organbuilding at the time). He then joined the Skinner firm, which by that time had purchased J. W. Steere & Son. Shortly afterward the factory burned, and Bryant moved with the firm to Westfield, where it took up shop in an old whip factory. Bryant was sent to Rochester, New York, to install the large organ at Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music along with the instrument in Professor Harold Gleason’s studio. While working in Rochester, Bryant met and married Ruth C. Blood, and they decided to settle there because he recognized the musical and cultural opportunities this community had to offer. Bryant’s Rochester career began with organbuilder Charles Topliff (himself a Steere alumnus), working with another Steere alumnus, Arthur Kohl. Bryant formed his own company in 1921 and continued to focus on service and restorations. To support his family during the Great Depression, Bryant sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door, among other things, while waiting for church work to revive.

While in Rochester, Bryant was curator of the four-manual, 129-rank Aeolian organ in George Eastman’s home—the largest residence organ ever built. Even those familiar with the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company are often unaware of Mr. Eastman’s fondness for organ music. His instrument had a Concertola Solo Music Roll Mechanism. Each Monday (even on Christmas Day), Bryant would arrive to check tuning and to set up the ten rolls for the week so that Mr. Eastman would be assured of music accompanying his breakfast. Each weekday, Mr. Gleason, who Mr. Eastman hired to head the organ department at the Eastman School of Music, would walk more than one mile down East Avenue from the school to play for Mr. Eastman’s breakfast promptly at 7:30 a.m. in the winter and 7:00 a.m. in the summer.

Bryant and Ruth had two children, Bryant Gideon, Jr., and Bina Ruth. Bryant, Jr., apprenticed with his father from an early age and later with the M. P. Möller Organ Company of Hagerstown, Maryland, installing many organs in the New York City area. Bryant returned to his father’s firm in Rochester following World War II where, in 1954, they incorporated as Bryant G. Parsons & Son, Inc. Bryant, Sr., retired in the early 1960s. The company grew and relocated to Penfield, New York, continuing with service and restoration work.

During the years in which father and son worked together in Western New York, Bryant, Jr.’s wife Esther Bills gave birth to five children. The two sons, Richard Bryant and Calvin Glenn, worked with their father from a very early age to learn the trade. Eventually, having been raised and trained as organbuilders, both sons were anxious to join the family firm in an official capacity and to establish their own credentials. Ric and Cal, as they prefer to be known, purchased the company from their father in 1979. In tandem with maintaining the company’s service responsibilities, the two set their sights on establishing a reputation for fine craftsmanship both through the restoration and rebuilding of existing organs and in the design and building of new organs bearing the Parsons name. Since that time, the company has completed a full portfolio of projects. As president and artistic director, Ric oversees the tonal and technical design departments. Ric has served on the board of the American Institute of Organbuilders in several capacities and as president of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America. As vice-president, Cal is responsible for managing the service department and for coordinating activities related to installations. In reality, Ric and Cal work as equal partners to ensure the company’s success.

Parsons’ reputation as a builder of fine liturgical pipe organs began to grow under Ric and Cal’s stewardship and with the addition of key staff members. Duane A. Prill, a gifted musician from Van Wert, Ohio, joined the firm in January 1991. Duane had just received a master’s degree in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Russell Saunders. Duane’s postgraduate studies at Eastman were under the direction of David Craighead. After joining Parsons, Duane worked with head voicer Gordon Dibble and quickly developed his own notable style of voicing and went on to become the company’s tonal director. Duane’s collaborative work with Manuel Rosales and Jonathan Ambrosino, combined with his ongoing commitment to study and visit organs throughout the United States and Europe, has helped raise the tonal designs of Parsons instruments to new heights. In addition, his service as principal organist at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester has driven Parsons to build instruments that strive for high-quality execution of church repertoire.

Peter H. Geise, also a gifted musician, joined the firm in 2004. He received a master’s degree in organ performance from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Hans Davidsson. After receiving his master’s, Peter embarked on a one-year training period at the Göteborg Organ Art Center in Sweden. Now Parsons’ technical design director, Peter is responsible for the design processes related to the mechanism and casework for each project. By necessity, Peter works in a hands-on fashion with Parsons construction and installation crews to ensure that what appears on the computer screen translates precisely to what is being built. In addition to his work at Parsons, Peter serves as the minister of music at Lima Presbyterian Church, Lima, New York, also home to Geise Opus 2, a two-manual, 25-rank electric-slider instrument built with church volunteers under Peter’s direction.

Ric’s two sons, Matthew and Timothy, have committed their efforts and skills to the company as well. Both Matt and Tim have accumulated years of experience and work closely with Ric and Cal to manage the company’s day-to-day operations. Matt currently serves as the dean of the Rochester chapter of the American Guild of Organists and vice president of the American Institute of Organbuilders. He is also responsible for the firm’s affiliation with the Eastman School of Music where Parsons serves as curator of organs. Tim has been heavily involved in Parsons’ recent entry into CNC technology, which has greatly enhanced the firm’s capabilities in terms of both process and production schedule. Tim is also involved in the firm’s manufacturing and installation processes and is responsible for the company’s graphics department.

Parsons Pipe Organ Builders strives to help clients find solutions that are tailored to their specific needs rather than limiting clients’ options to a particular style of building. Known for achieving superb results, Parsons maintains its own tonal goals. However, the company believes strongly in taking a collaborative approach with its clients to ensure that discussions cover a broad range of possibilities.

The Parsons project list is diverse with new organs of both tracker and electric actions, historic restorations, and even an unusual commission for an artist in Soho, New York City. Particularly challenging and interesting was Parsons’ participation in the research project for Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, working with the Göteborg Organ Art Center (GOArt), in Sweden. This two-manual, 40-rank, mechanical-action instrument is an historic copy based on the tonal design of the 1706 Arp Schnitger organ that was located in the Charlottenburg Castle Chapel in Berlin.

Parsons is currently under contract to build new organs for First Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (three manuals, 52 ranks, mechanical action, Scott R. Riedel, consultant); St. James by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla, California (four manuals, 79 ranks, electric-slider action, in collaboration with Manuel Rosales; Thomas Sheehan, consultant); and St. Benedict Catholic Cathedral, Evansville, Indiana (three manuals, 57 ranks, electric-slider action). Parsons was also recently chosen to complete the research, documentation, and restoration of the circa 1841 Jacob Hilbus organ for the Organ Historical Society (Bynum Petty, archivist and consultant; S. L. Huntington & Co., collaborating).

Much has transpired since the firm built the first two organs in the 1,400-square-foot workshop in Penfield, New York. In 1986, the firm relocated to the current workshop in Canandaigua, New York, which was expanded to 21,000 square feet in 2005. The introduction of 3D CAD arrived at the firm in 1986 when it was one of the first to provide computer generated images of a proposed organ design in the context of a client’s architectural setting. The year 2019 brought the addition of a CNC machine and with it a new level of efficiency and accuracy in construction.

Of course, the value of any business that relies on craftsmanship and personal commitment to achieve the highest quality work lies with every member of the Parsons organization. That number has grown over the years from four to eighteen, and we are grateful to acknowledge the work of Derek Bommelje, Joseph Borrelli, Brian Ebert, Aaron Feidner, Aaron Grabowski, Eric Kesler, David McCleary, Jay Slover, Chad Snyder, Dwight Symonds, Bernard Talty, and Travis Tones. Ric’s wife Ellen and Tim’s wife Kate currently manage the office. Ric often mentions that the company’s success has as much to do with divine intervention as it does with having a sound business plan! Parsons continues to be optimistic about its future contributions to the fine art of organbuilding for generations to come.

www.parsonsorgans.com

Photo: Bryant G. Parsons & Son, Inc. truck fleet, circa late 1950s

Cover photos:

2010 (top left): St. George’s Episcopal Church, Fredericksburg, VA, III/55 tracker

2020 (top center): First Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids, IA, III/51 tracker

2005 (top right): St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, Monona, WI, II/30 tracker (Rosales/Parsons)

1985 (left center): Westminster Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX, II/9 tracker

1989 (right center): Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement, Rochester, NY, II/26 tracker

2019 (bottom left): Hope Lutheran Church, St. Louis, MO, II/27 electric slider

2015 (bottom right): United Church, Canandaigua, NY, III/40 electric slider