Schantz Organ Company, Orrville, Ohio; 150 years of Schantz organs

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. 

This article will examine some of the details of how different mechanisms were developed and used, how tonal designs changed over the years, and the wide range of visual designs that can be found in our instruments. 

Evolution of Schantz action

Abraham John Tschantz¹ (1849–1921) started his company in 1873 to build “Ohio Beauty” reed organs. An unknown number of instruments were built, starting on the family farm and moving quickly to a shop in Orrville. We know of seven surviving “Ohio Beauty” reed organs, ranging from fully restored to unusable. 

After assisting with the installation of a Votteler pipe organ in 1872 (which we still care for), Abraham decided to grow his company to build pipe organs. Early records are unclear, but Schantz was building tracker pipe organs by 1891. By 1903, we began the transition to tubular-pneumatic action. In this style of mechanism, a lead tube runs from every key, pedal, and drawknob back to the chests. Pressing a key will de-pressurize the tube, which causes the chest to play a note. Most remaining contracts from this time refer to an “individual compartment for each stop” in the chest, i.e., ventil chests. Initially this was used only for pedal stops, while the manual key action remained tracker. A fine example of this is the 1904 instrument still standing in Second United Church of Christ in Tiffin, Ohio. By 1906, tubular-pneumatic key action with ventil windchests had become our standard. Trackers continued to be built until at least 1908; tubular-pneumatic actions were built until at least 1926. We built approximately 100 organs using this mechanism, and we still care for several of these instruments.

Victor A. Schantz (1885–1973) was part of the second generation, and he spent eighteen months working for Wurlitzer in North Tonawanda, New York. There he learned about building dependable electro-pneumatic chest action. In 1918, we built our first electro-pneumatic action for First Baptist Church in nearby Seville, Ohio. This was followed by electrifying two organs during the process of relocating them. By 1923, electro-pneumatic chests were our standard mechanism. This style of chest offers fast and reliable key action. It also allowed us to offer moveable consoles—quite an exciting development at the time. We continue to build pitman chests today, with subtle improvements since 1923. One important development was the Schantz cross-top pitman chest, built of laminated yellow poplar toeboards running perpendicular to the ranks of pipes. Leather gasketing between the toeboards allowed for plenty of expansion in the summer and contraction in the winter in the northern climates where most pre-World War II Schantz organs were installed.

Albert Imhoff (1898–1994) was a long-time employee who made several important mechanical developments during his time at Schantz. Indeed, we still regularly use several tools that he designed to ease production of pipes and chests. His most enduring contribution might be the tremolo device that he patented in 1959, which we still use today.

In 1980, Schantz rebuilt the 1892 Roosevelt organ at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, New York, using slider chests purchased from Organ Supply Industries.² In the mid-1980s Schantz went further, and experimented with building tracker-action instruments again. However, we decided to continue our focus on electro-pneumatic instruments.

When Burton K. Tidwell took on the role of tonal director in 1988, he encouraged the company to explore building slider chests with electro-pneumatic key action. And so in 1993, Schantz built its first “Blackinton-style” slider chest for the Great division at the United Methodist Church in Painesville, Ohio. To maximize space efficiency and tuning stability, these chests often have pipes laid out in an M-M (or tierce) configuration. Speech is also subtly affected by the single valve and common tone channels, which operate just like a tracker. We are proud to continue to build both pitman and slider chests for clients today. 

In addition to building our own instruments from raw lumber, our team has also successfully restored historic instruments from many builders throughout the country. Major restorations include the four-manual, 94-rank Skinner built in 1929 for Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio.³ More recently, six months ago we completed a restoration of the two-manual, 22-rank Aeolian-Skinner that was built in 1963 for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.⁴ 

Tonal designs

As musical tastes have changed over the course of history, the tonal design of instruments has also changed. Comparing stoplists of organs built in the 1920s and 1960s by any company in the country would show a change in musical design. While some companies made dramatic shifts, Schantz was more subtle. 

Looking at stoplists from our first and second generation, an abundance of 8′ flue ranks will be seen. Upper work usually begins with a 4′ Octave and a 4′ Flute d’Amour. If the organ included a reed, it was most often a Vox Humana. The Swell would include two strings: an 8′ Aeoline and an 8′ Salicional—but no celeste to pair with them. The language used for stop names reflected an English influence with names like Open Diapason and Melodia. Often these instruments would also have a “hidden octave” to allow the effective use of super-couplers.

John Schantz (1920–2013) studied organ under Arthur Poister at Oberlin Conservatory (interrupted by military service in World War II), and visited instruments in Europe in 1950. When he took on the role of tonal director, his stoplists reflected these experiences and the Orgelbewegung (Organ Reform movement). Chorus structures included more upper work, and nomenclature reflected various national schools. Scale sizes (diameters) of principal pipes decreased slightly to increase the brightness of the sound, and wind pressures were lowered as far as 2.5 inches in a water column. All of this allowed the cut-up of the pipe mouth to be kept slightly lower. Languids and lower lips were nicked less, yielding some subtle initial “chiff” in pipe speech not found in earlier—or current—Schantz organs. Reed pipes also tended to be smaller scale, with chorus reeds primarily using parallel shallots.

Schantz has built wooden pipes in-house since we started building pipe organs. But initially, metal pipes were sourced from suppliers (Gottfried, Durst, and Schopp), as many builders do today. Shortly after World War II, Jack Cook joined the staff. A former Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner employee, Cook helped us design a pipe shop addition that was built in 1966 to allow us to efficiently make our own metal pipes, a practice that continues today. 

Following John Schantz’s retirement, Burton K. Tidwell served as tonal director from 1988–1996. Under his leadership, Schantz organs started to retreat from neo-Baroque narrow scaling and over-use of upperwork.⁵ Tidwell, an accomplished organist and church musician, insisted on spending significant time onsite doing tonal finishing. This allowed our voicers to carefully maximize the musicality of each instrument by addressing pipe speech and balance. 

It should be noted that Tidwell also designed clever unit organs for clients with limited space and budgets. These small instruments have some ranks that share bottom and top octaves to maximize budget and space, but their middle range is independent to maximize musicality. Nearly twenty of these instruments have been built.

Jeffrey Dexter joined Schantz in 1993, and quickly followed Tidwell as our tonal director. He is also a practicing church musician who continues to move us toward even more broadly voiced instruments that play a wide range of repertoire effectively. 

Visual designs

In the company’s early years, Abraham Tschantz was responsible for all design aspects of his organs, including visual design. By 1893 there were at least nine instruments by other builders within a short buggy ride of the shop that could potentially inspire his case designs. Contracts from this early time period can be subtly amusing to read:

Case of Oak or other native woods, varnished and polished, all front pipes richly decorated in gold and colors. Width about 12 feet 00 inches; depth about 6 feet 00 inches; height about 13 feet 00 inches. Style of case in harmony with the interior architecture of the Church.⁶  

Abraham’s son Edison was interested in both architectural and tonal design, and the case designs between the World Wars are likely his. 

After World War II, as Schantz became a truly national builder, Bruce Schantz (1913–2007) took on the role of foreman. One of his many developments was to establish an engineering department of three men: Chester Gable, Wilbur Herr, and Bob Romey. In addition to producing the hundreds of engineering drawings required during the post-war boom years of the 1950s and 1960s, each man developed his skills as a visual designer. 

Many instruments were installed in chambers of churches during this time, with little or nothing to be seen. But late in the engineers’ long careers, Schantz clients became more interested in seeing as well as hearing the organs they were commissioning. Bruce Schantz responded to the demand by seeking the advice of Reverend Arnold Klukas, an art historian who had taught at Oberlin College and Smith College. Klukas provided guidance for the Schantz engineers as they designed their cases. The Schantz cabinet shop began building the sort of cabinetry that had not been a mainstay at the company for decades. Our 1989 instrument at Trinity Episcopal Church in Ambler, Pennsylvania (III/49), was our first modern, free-standing case.⁷ 

In 1991 Romey, Gable, and Herr were nearing retirement.⁸ For the first time Schantz looked outside the company for one of its engineers and hired Eric Gastier, a registered architect and organist. He was mentored by Wilbur Herr and quickly designed his first case for Painesville (Ohio) United Methodist Church.⁹ With Gastier, Schantz made the transition from drafting boards and tracing paper to AutoCAD. That move was soon followed by the installation of the company’s first CNC router, a machine that allows the efficient production of casework, pipe shades, console cabinet carvings, mechanical parts, and even metal pieces to solder into new pipes. 

Anniversary celebrations

We are looking forward to celebrating our 150th anniversary over the course of the entire year. You can follow our Facebook page for some historic photos. A highlight will be our open house on Saturday, April 29, from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Our team will also be present at other local events—including sending a reed organ on a float through Orrville’s Independence Day parade! And we are proud to look to the future by sponsoring scholarships with both the Akron and Cleveland chapters of the American Guild of Organists. 

Notes

1. The spelling of the family name was officially changed in 1899 to ease pronunciation as the business was growing. Other branches of the family retained the original spelling.

2. It should be noted that Schantz provides chests, consoles, and pipes, as well as Zephyr organ blowers to almost every organbuilder in North America.

3. Featured as the cover instrument for The American Organist, January 2001, page 52.

4. For more information, see “New life for the Metropolitan Opera’s organ,” by Craig Whitney, The Diapason, November 2022, page 12.

5. For more information about his tonal design, see his article, “The Small Church Organ: A Rationale Towards Integrity,” The American Organist, April 1990, pages 95–98. 

6. From the contract for the 1903 instrument built for Grace Reformed Church in Tiffin, Ohio.

7. Featured as the cover instrument for The American Organist, October 1990, page 66. 

8. It should be noted—with deep appreciation—that many long-term employees at Schantz would “retire” to become part-time employees.

9. Featured as the cover instrument for The American Organist, October 1994, page 44. 

—Luke D. Tegtmeier, Jeffrey D. Dexter, Eric J. Gastier

www.schantzorgan.com

Chelsea Chen plays “Super Mario Fantasia” original themes by Koji Kondo, arr. Chen.

The Church of Saint Jude the Apostle, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. 
Schantz Opus 2291, three manuals and pedal, 34 stops, 40 ranks (2009).

Schantz Organ Company, Orrville, Ohio, celebrated its 150th anniversary, featured in the March 2023 issue of The Diapason. 

Since its 1873 founding, five generations of Schantz family members have led their 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.

For information: www.schantzorgan.com

Orgues Létourneau, St-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada:

A new chapter begins

This isn’t the article we had intended to publish in this issue of The Diapason. As with so many other things this year, the completion of a pipe organ we had anticipated sharing here has been delayed by complications arising from the coronavirus pandemic. We will provide details about our 75-rank instrument for First United Methodist Church in Lubbock, Texas—the rendering of which is featured on the cover—in a later issue.

Nonetheless, we felt this is an opportunity to detail some of the recent changes at Orgues Létourneau. The news of Fernand Létourneau selling the company last November to Dr. Dudley Oakes was publicized widely but was necessarily brief. 2019 was Orgues Létourneau’s fortieth year of continuous operation. Over this time, the company has built over 140 new pipe organs around the world and has rebuilt or restored countless others.

The sale of an organbuilding enterprise is delicate, as is surely the case with any business providing personalized products that are evaluated subjectively. This sense of risk is heightened in our unique industry, thanks to some well-known collapses, even if they were decades ago. Then again, there are examples of well-planned and orderly ownership changes, including the recent transition at Dobson Pipe Organ Builders. Any success-fail probability equation would involve changes in the quality of the product post-sale, the circumstances of the sale, the actors involved, the overall economic climate, and broader trends in the pipe organ world. The role of simple luck can’t be overlooked either.

Despite the global uncertainty at present, we are thankful that our organ building team at Létourneau will be busy well into the future. The aforementioned instrument for First United Methodist Church, Lubbock, will be followed later this year by a 36-rank instrument for Alumni Chapel of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. The Aeolian-Skinner/M. P. Möller pipe organ from Market Square Presbyterian Church of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is currently in our workshops where we are hard at work transforming it into our Opus 136 (IV/83). Létourneau’s Opus 127 from St. Mark’s School of Dallas, Texas, has also returned to our workshops; this 61-rank instrument suffered considerably last fall when a tornado tore through the school’s North Dallas neighborhood. We will be comprehensively rebuilding the organ, including a new case and console. There are a number of other exciting projects we look forward to sharing with you in due course, including a major concert hall instrument.

In the meantime, we trust you’ll enjoy the following conversation with Fernand Létourneau about his early days and an introduction to company’s revamped management team. We finish with a preview of what’s ahead from Létourneau’s new president, Dudley Oakes.

—Andrew Forrest

A conversation with Fernand Létourneau

Fernand Létourneau began his organbuilding career at Casavant Frères in 1965. He worked briefly in nearly every department, but his excellent ear—honed as a trumpeter in a local band—led him to the voicing department where he apprenticed under Paul Proulx. Proulx was known internally as Larry Phelps’s protégé, showing unusual finesse voicing flue pipes with open toes and unnicked languids. Fernand also learned reed voicing from his uncle, Jean-Paul Létourneau, who was regarded as the company’s finest reed voicer for much of the twentieth century. Having the benefit of two exceptional instructors, Fernand was soon a skilled voicer for both flue and reed pipes. This versatility kept him on the road as a tonal finisher, and by the end of the Phelps era he was the company’s top trouble-shooter.

Gerhard Brunzema came to Québec from Germany as Phelps’s successor in 1972. Fernand credits Brunzema for having taught him a great deal, especially in the area of mechanical key actions. Brunzema soon invited Fernand to serve as assistant tonal director, a role that drew Fernand into the company’s most prestigious projects and allowed him to continue as the company’s top problem solver.

Events over the next few years, however, caused Fernand to realize that further advancement at Casavant was unlikely. He pondered starting his own company, but more immediately, he planned a study trip to Europe with Brunzema’s tacit support. Fernand was successful in obtaining a grant from the Canadian Council of the Arts of $2,700 CAN in 1978 for the study trip, and consequently, Fernand resigned from Casavant. Soon after, he was on his way to Europe to study the voicing techniques in unaltered historic instruments.

While he mentions the Schnitger organ of Alkmaar and the Müller organ of the St-Bavo Church in Haarlem, Fernand singles out the 1790 Clicquot organ at the Cathedral in Poitiers as the one that perhaps impressed him the most. Here, he met Jean-Albert Villard, the titular organist, whom he remembers as being extremely kind. After introducing themselves, Fernand recalled the two men went into the instrument, and after a few minutes of Fernand looking closely at the pipework—but being extremely careful not to touch anything—Villard looked at him and exclaimed impatiently, “Well, come on then, pick up the pipes!” As Fernand recounts the story with a laugh, “Needless to say, he didn’t have to say it twice!” The two men stayed in touch, with Villard writing a letter to Fernand the following year with the question, “Aren’t you a little young to start out as an organbuilder?”

Tender age of 34 notwithstanding, Fernand Létourneau launched Orgues Létourneau in January of 1979 from his home in Ste-Rosalie, Québec. He continued to take on freelance voicing contracts but was soon invited to put forward a bid for a practice organ at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Hull (now Gatineau). It turned out to be the company’s very first instrument, with Fernand recalling the director, Monsieur Aimé Lainesse, asking him, “Have you ever built an organ?”

“No, this will be my first,” replied Fernand with some trepidation.

“Oh yes? Well, if no one gives you a chance to build your first instrument, you will never build your second. Monsieur Létourneau, I will give you that chance, you will build your first instrument.”

The next three Létourneau instruments went “down under,” thanks to Fernand’s work on a Pogson pipe organ at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music prior to the construction of Opus 1. Fernand’s revoicing of this instrument won the acclaim of the late Australian organist David Rumsey, who then enthusiastically supported Fernand’s proposals for St. Alban’s Church in Epping (Opus 2), for the residence of Dr. Neil Cameron of Sydney (Opus 3), and for the Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School in Darlinghurst (Opus 4).

Each of these instruments was built in Fernand’s basement with another former Casavant employee, the cabinetmaker Noël Bilodeau. Also assisting were Yvan Blouin and Sylvain Létourneau, both of whom are still with Létourneau today. Fernand smiles when describing the unremarkable tools they used in those days, though he notes that he allowed himself one new woodworking machine with each new contract.

Fernand also highlights the importance of a publicist and supporter, Maurice Roy, in those early years, who wanted Fernand to advertise his skills. Fernand was reluctant, telling Maurice advertising was expensive and it wasn’t worth it. Maurice ultimately carried the day, arguing, “Come on, Fernand! If you’re excellent but you’re the only one who knows it, that’s not worth five cents!” Indeed, Maurice Roy was unflagging as a publicist for the company and its work, from those early days through the late 1990s when his health began to fail.

While he had initially planned to build a workshop on the land behind his home, Fernand decided in 1983 to buy a building at a bargain price from the City of Saint-Hyacinthe. The building, the company’s headquarters to this day on rue Savoie, was a redundant water treatment facility. With its multiple levels and 18-inch-thick concrete walls, Fernand notes its transformation into a workshop for organbuilding cost over four times its purchase price.

As the conversation nears its close, Fernand looks back and acknowledges he had something to prove in starting his own company, that he wanted to create something remarkable. He remains surprised nonetheless at the extent of his success, “If someone had told me forty years ago that the company would be what it is today, I wouldn’t have believed them.” He also notes how far the team of organbuilders currently at Létourneau has come: “I am proud that many at Létourneau today are really specialists in their fields. Some of our people today are among the best I have ever worked with.”

Asked what advice he might offer his successor Dudley Oakes, his closing thoughts are in a similar vein: “I have great faith in Dudley and in the company going into the future. Dudley takes care of his customers, and I am delighted he wanted to step up and guide the company through its next chapter. I would tell Dudley to trust his team; you can’t do it all, and they want to keep you happy, they won’t let you down.”

The preceding text is an edited transcription of a conversation that took place in French between Fernand Létourneau and Andrew Forrest at the Létourneau home on July 20, 2020. 

A look ahead from the president

I have always been fascinated with the pipe organ. At the age of six, I begged my parents to allow me to play the organ but had to follow the usual course of studying piano all through elementary and secondary school. Eventually, the time came when I had sufficient piano background to have a seat at the organ console of Trinity United Methodist Church in Richmond, Virginia. I will never forget the sheer excitement; it was an electronic organ, but little did this kid care!

I later had the opportunity to visit Second Presbyterian Church in downtown Richmond, where a high school friend was a member. There I experienced a three-manual pipe organ that produced some of the most amazing sounds I had ever heard. I graduated from high school in 1973 able to play all of the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues by Bach (or whomever wrote them). Ignoring the objections of my business-oriented father, I proceeded to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Richmond and followed this immediately by immersing myself in the organ program of the University of Michigan.

At Michigan, it was magical. I was flooded with all the goodness imaginable by four competent, compelling, and selfless teachers for whom a student’s progress was their raison d’être. I learned about the organ, about music, and about life. I was primed for a lifetime ahead as a musician by the likes of Robert Clark, Marilyn Mason, James Kibbie, and Robert Glasgow. I also had the opportunity to compete for le Grand Prix de Chartres twice, and while I didn’t win, the value of those experiences far outweighs any disappointment.

My love for the organ has always gone beyond playing it; I am fascinated by the variety of sounds available and the manner in which sound is made. I have an innate love for objects of beauty and integrity that extends well beyond pipe organs. Such objects typically include gorgeous woods, beautiful metals, exquisite craftsmanship, a keen eye for detail, or are simply of the highest order because of their perfect execution. The pipe organ just happens to combine all these things to create a world that I adore.

I joined with Létourneau in 1987 when I had finished my Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan. Fernand Létourneau was looking for an organist to represent him in the United States; his staff at Létourneau at that time was technically superb but only a few were musicians. In my student days, I was one of sixty organ students divided between three studios, and while U of M was one of the bigger schools, there were others as well. Organists like me were being trained and educated across North America, so it seemed clear there would be a need for better instruments in time.

In those early days, I was doing church music ministry, teaching music at a college, and representing Fernand’s company. I was also the only native English speaker at Létourneau, so I inevitably worked on the company’s documents for English-speaking clients, whether it was my project or not! In this way, I found myself in the middle of projects with
H. M. The Tower of London, St. Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral (Sydney, Australia), and Pembroke College (The University of Oxford) among others. This was a great vantage point from which to learn about the instrument and the company’s approach to organbuilding.

The company’s profile in the United States grew quickly in the early 1990s, and I enjoyed my work; I loved telling people that I was the luckiest person alive. I was able to play the organ, to teach students, and to work in organbuilding almost every day. Really, who could ask for more? Over the past three decades with Létourneau, I have seen joy countless times on the faces of congregants when they hear their new instrument for the first time. I have heard stunning recitals on our pipe organs by renowned artists. I have heard the extraordinary choir in the chapel of Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge accompanied by our Opus 95. In many cases, I have performed concerts on these same instruments. The one constant through all these experiences has been that our lives are all immeasurably richer because of the beauty that these pipe organs provide.

One of the great successes I have observed within the Létourneau company over three decades is the talented and experienced group of artisans that work for the company today. This team is a tremendous source of encouragement to me. Fernand understood that a strong team would lead to repeated successes, so he set out to surround himself with talented and hard-working individuals. With the team I have inherited and some strategic additions coming in the future, we are poised to realize some thrilling organ projects in a climate that demands our best mechanically and musically. It is reassuring to receive inquiries from around the world and to know that Létourneau is truly equipped, as one of the finest shops in North America, to respond to a variety of challenges.

I can predict the next three years or so as much of that time is already committed to some exciting projects. We know we will be going “all out” to satisfy clients in Texas, Utah, Michigan, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Ontario, Tennessee, and Alabama. I am confident that other contracts will come forward as well, but I expect the needs of our clients will influence where we go and what we do over the medium term and beyond.

Why did I buy the Létourneau company? That’s easy; it was because I love what we do. Fernand built the company for forty years, but we’re also friends, I knew he wanted to retire. I have never known a harder working man, and he has earned the right to step back and enjoy his golden years. With my experience and knowledge of the company, it is an honor to step in and take the company in some exciting new directions. In fact, Fernand set a standard decades ago when he remarked that each Létourneau organ should somehow be better than the last one. It is a noble idea and one we will continue to follow as long as I own the company.

In terms of changes since I took over, we’re working hard to perfect what we already do, to keep making our instruments and our team better and better. Our relationships, from initial meetings through installation and tonal finishing through the organ’s dedication, are crucial to our success. Our instruments need to reflect our best work, whether that work comes from our hands, our minds, or our hearts. We love what we do and we want those who experience our instruments to feel that too.

More broadly, the pipe organ industry will endure ups and downs, but I am certain organbuilding will always have a place in the world. So long as there are people who play the organ musically, there will always be the need for our instruments.

In the end, superb pipe organs are our goal. One question I always ask when talking about our pipe organs has nothing to do with the number of pipes or ranks. Rather, what I want to know is, “Is it musical?” This renewed pursuit of musicality is, I feel, the best way to honor Fernand Létourneau’s legacy going forward.

—Dudley Oakes

Builder’s website: http://letourneauorgans.com/

Dudley Oakes has served as a liaison for over thirty years between the company and hundreds of clients throughout the United States. Having purchased the company in November 2019, Dr. Oakes is currently dividing his time between the company’s workshop in Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, and his home in Winchester, Virginia. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1987 and has subsequently held positions at several prestigious churches across the United States. A distinguished concert organist and teacher, Dr. Oakes has lectured and played recitals across North America as well as in Italy, France, Germany, England, and Russia.

Andrew Forrest began his organbuilding career with Létourneau in February 1999, was named Artistic Director in 2008, and was appointed Vice President of the company in 2019. He oversees the company with a focus on individual projects, including meeting with clients, preparing proposals, setting artistic benchmarks, and directing tonal finishing. An organist himself, Mr. Forrest’s interests include the art of pipe scaling, mixture compositions, reed shallots, and other details that go into tone production. He was elected President of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America (APOBA) in May 2020. Mr. Forrest holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton University.

Georges Trépanier holds diplomas in administration and international commerce from Montréal’s prestigious HEC business school. After overseeing the company’s accounting for over a decade, he was named General Manager in March 2015. In this role, Mr. Trépanier ably manages the company’s financial affairs as well as relations with the various levels of government. As a boy, he studied piano for seven years, which translated into his interest in organbuilding. Over the years, Mr. Trépanier has participated in several pipe organ installations across the United States and Australia.

Dany Nault began his organbuilding career at Létourneau casting pipe metal at the age of 18. He rose quickly to the position of chief pipe maker and oversaw the production of hundreds of ranks of pipes over a twelve-year period. Mr. Nault decided in 2013 to study industrial engineering on a full-time basis, and upon completing the program, he worked as a technician and later manager in the manufacturing sector. In February 2020, Mr. Nault returned to Létourneau as Director of Production. His responsibilities in this role include overseeing production schedules, enhancing productivity, developing departmental quality improvement plans, and raising safety standards.

Létourneau’s goal with visual proposals is to offer a realistic sense of how an instrument will look once installed. As Artistic Designer, Claude Demers is the creative mind behind each instrument’s visual concept, designing each organ case in AutoCAD and overseeing its transformation into a three-dimensional illustration. He holds a diploma in architecture as well as a certificate in electronics. Mr. Demers is an accomplished wood carver, having sculpted the wood carvings on many of the company’s instruments over the years. He has been with the company since 1988.

François Carrier began at Létourneau in 1989 after training as a cabinetmaker. Over the years, he gained experience throughout the company working as a cabinetmaker, wood finisher, voicing assistant, installer, and windchest builder, serving as head of this last department for a decade. His interest in design led him to complete several intensive courses in architectural drafting and AutoCAD; he was promoted to the position of Technical Designer in 2008. Working closely with Mr. Demers and Mr. Forrest, Mr. Carrier translates the initial designs for each instrument into completed production drawings to enable construction in our workshops.

Photo: Fernand Létourneau and Dudley Oakes sign paperwork marking the sale of Orgues Létourneau in the company’s 40th year (photo credit: Orgues Létourneau)