Dan Abrahamson of Contemporary and Classic Church Organs in Kansas City, Mo. tweeks a small pipe while installing a refurbished pipe organ at the new St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Abrahmson, Dave Cording and Stephen Wittman have spent countless hours restoring a 40-year-old pipe organ for the new sanctuary, which will have its grand opening on Feb. 14.
I got the chance to watch as three organ experts installed a refurbished pipe organ in to a new sanctuary. I was working on a story about the new building with Jeff Walker, a features editor at the San Marcos Daily Record. While we walked around during the grand tour, we got a glimpse of the pipe organ. I couldn’t resist taking photos, but they told me I had to come back another day. The situation was so unique that I agreed to come back another day to be able to spend some time shooting.
The organ was created originally to fit in to a small space, so it was difficult to squeeze three workers and a photographer in to the organ room. The pipes are made of a blend of tin and lead, which is very soft, so it was very important that I not touch the pipes. The slightest touch puts the pipe out of tune. It was tough to move around, but I think the obstruction of the pipes actually worked out nicely. It helped to show how difficult of a situation these guys have to work in.
The man in the photo, Dan Abrahamson, is actually retired, but came with the other two men to help out on the job. Abrahamson had a 30-year organ career and still loves working with the pipes. The men told me that no organ is the same, every one of them is made custom to fit whatever venue that will ultimately be it’s home. This organ was refurbished and moved to another building, so there were some things that needed to be moved around. In this situation, the room was made custom to fit the 1,054 pipes.