Blackstone Residence Pipe Organ
Bratenahl, Ohio USA
Blackstone Pipe Organ Builders
Kevin Scheider
Keuka Specialty Woodworking of WNY, Inc.
1530 Military Road
Buffalo, NY
Kevin refinished the 1927 Aeolian console, built new stop jambs and coupler rows to accommodate the 180 stops and 60 couplers, refurbished the ivory keyboard with new contacts and regulation, refinished the pedalboard to "as new" condition, replaced pistons and toe studs, and equipped the bench with an electric lift mechanism.
Paul Staley and David Bond
Niagara Organ Works, Inc
384 Southwood Drive
Buffalo NY 14223
E-mail: niagaraorg@mac.com
Paul Staley and David Bond have carried the primary load of the Bratenahl installation. This has included construction of numerous new pipe chests (with the assistance of Kevin Scheider), all the wind conduits, and bridges over these. They have performed a good deal of pipe racking and installed blowers and their muffler boxes. David Bond in particular has been instrumental in the thorough painstaking "debugging" of the instrument (ciphers and dead notes) and performed the wiring of the refurbished console.
Nolte Organ Building
5242 W. Electric Avenue
West Allis, Wisconsin 53219
Phone: 414-671-5646
Fax: 888-867-0596
E-mail: nolteorgans@gmail.com
http://nolteorgans.com/index.html
John Nolte was involved with creative design with the architect of the South Pedal facade, including the tilting mahogany 32' pipes seen in the foreground, the 8' Montre facade of the Great organ, which tilts in a circular arc mimicking the Crown Trumpet, which he also designed, and the circular chandelier. He built the 32' open principal seen behind the mahogany pipes.
For the North Organ, he designed and built the mahogany tapered principal and celeste for the Antiphonal that sits in random pattern around the central tower at the northwest part of the music space. These pipes are connected with the 2-rank antiphonal chest sitting in front of the Echo chamber by a pseudo-random arrangement of the 4' Hole Flute and remaining principal celeste pipes. He and his staff built the west Great chest and the lower Solo chest.
SP Keith and Associates
3131N. Pere Marquette Rd.
Ludington MI 44931
Phone: 616-723-3758
http://www.spkeithpipeorgans.com/
Shawn Keith was involved with cleaning of the instrument in Birmingham after hurricane Opal brought a huge Tulip Poplar down on the roof right above the organ.
For the Cleveland project, Shawn was involved in the design process with the architect for the North Organ. This included the theme of Lake Erie, with pipes arranged in quarter circles, the 32' Lake Trombone in a pattern like the tall grasses that grow along the shore, and even the surf breaking (principal chorus Mixture III). He, with Richard Schneider, constructed the cantilevered North pedal that mimics the South Pedal facade, except upside-down. Thus white painted 16' Principal pipes and copper 32' pedal reed are on the floor level, 16' Stopped Flute on the upper level, with inverted string pipes mimicking the mahogany reed tilting on the South end. The Principal chorus provides the horizontal movement that ties the entire North Organ together visually.
Schneider Pipe Organs, Inc
104 S. Johnston Street, P.O. Box 137
Kenney IL 61749
(217) 871-4807
E-mail: rich@schneiderpipeorgans.com
http://www.schneiderpipeorgans.com/
Richard Schneider performed the majority of the electrical wiring of the instrument from power suppies to the numerous driver boards. He also refurbished a number of the large wood and large metal ranks, repairing them and then finishing them, either clear, or most commonly in Origami White.
Trivo Company, Inc
515 S. Burhans Blvd.
Hagerstown MD 21740
Phone: 301-797-3279
Expension of the organ between Birmingham Al and Cleveland OH was in no small part the addition of reed stops. Joe Clipp and John Hendriksen worked together to set the timber and strength of all these sets of reeds, such that they would have different sounds and sounds appropriate for their various organ divisions. In the Birmingham there were 6 reed voices. In the Cleveland installation there are 21 sets ranging from 32' (3) to 2'. Joe spent weeks on site regulating and tuning these sets.
Uniflex Relay Systems
526 West Division Street
Union City, Indiana
Sales & Orders (765) 232-4675
Tech Support (765) 232-4674
Without an organ relay system, the organ would not play. The organ relay system employed in our organ is the Uniflex Relay Systems 3000. It is a software system that was backward compatable with the software driven system used in Birmingham. There the similarities end, however. The Uniflex system is now driven by Ethernet connections, with a wireless control tablet at the console. See For Organists for details of how the system is used.
Dick and Linda Wilcox, whom we visited on two occasions during installation continue to be highly responsive to requests, which for us included MIDI connections, which was essential for tonal finishing of this large instrument. Tuning is also facilitated by an iPhone app that for the most part eliminates the need for a key holder.
