St. Andrew’s Organ

St. Andrew’s is the home of a 3-manual, 46-rank DiGennaro-Hart pipe organ that was completed in August 2011.

Through the efforts of our organ builder, Michael Hart, St. Andrew’s was fortunate to acquire an existing instrument, Reuter #1355, from St. John’s Episcopal Church, Norwood Parish, Silver Spring, MD.  (The organ was removed due to a nave renovation and was subsequently replaced by an instrument designed for their reconfigured space.)  Reuter #1355 served as the foundation of our instrument, enabling St. Andrew’s to have a larger and more versatile instrument than it would have been able to afford had the organ been all new.  Michael and Larry Trupiano, our tonal designer, significantly revised the specification of that organ by eliminating ranks of pipes that did not conform with their tonal concept; relocating ranks from one division to another, where they felt they could be better used; and adding new ranks and a handful of digital voices to create a stoplist that is designed for St. Andrew’s liturgical needs while also serving as a fine solo/concert instrument.  All existing pipes that were reused were cleaned and individually revoiced for their optimal sound in our acoustical environment; reused windchests were restored and new windchests were added; and an entirely new console, with new keyboards and a new solid-state memory and combination action, was built in the beautiful oak shell of an older console.  The layout of the instrument was ingeniously designed to get a rather large parish organ into the least amount of space, respecting St. Andrew’s desire to maintain as much seating as possible.

Michael Hart is know throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for the quality of his work as a builder, restorer and curator of organs.  Notable examples of his work are the organs at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on the close of Washington Cathedral and St. John’s Episcopal Church, McLean, Virginia; the restoration of the organs in the Bethlehem Chapel and at the College of Preachers at Washington Cathedral; and his curatorship of the organ at National Presbyterian Church.

Lawrence (Larry) Trupiano is a principal in the firm of Mann & Trupiano in Brooklyn, NY.  He is the curator of the organs at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, and St. Mary the Virgin in New York City.  He also restored an 1830 organ built by Thomas Appleton of Boston, MA, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  He was in charge of restoring the organ of St. Paul’s Chapel, Wall Street, which, being virtually at Ground Zero, was seriously damaged in the attacks of September 11, 2001; the restored instrument was played for the first time on Easter Sunday, 2009.

Samuel Hughes, our reed restorer and revoicer, is probably the most highly regarded specialist in organ reed pipes (such as trumpets, oboes, and clarinets) on the East Coast and possibly the entire country.  Before undertaking the cleaning, restoring and revoicing of the reeds for the St. Andrew’s organ, he did the same work on the reeds of the immense Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia, PA.

Specification

Couplers:  Great to Pedal 8, Great to Pedal 4, Swell to Pedal 8, Swell to Pedal 4, Choir to Pedal 8; Great to Choir 8, Swell to Choir 16, Swell to Choir 8, Swell to Choir 4; Swell to Great 16, Swell to Great 8, Swell to Great 4, Choir to Great 16, Choir to Great 8, Choir to Great 4.