Latest New Organ
Opus 118, First Parish Church
Wayland, Massachusetts


Latest Rebuild
Opus R55D, St. Paul's Episcopal
Nantucket, Massachusetts


Latest Restoration
Opus R490, St. Anna's Chapel
Newburyport, Massachusetts


Announcements

Free Organ Concert
1893 Woodberry & Harris Organ
Sunday, Nov. 24, at 5:00 PM
Marlboro, MA
Stan Hanson, music director at Saint Stephen Lutheran Church, 537 Bolton Street, Marlboro MA, will play a recital on the church's newly acquired 1893 Woodberry & Harris tracker organ. The 2-manual, 12-rank organ was a gift from Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Shrewsbury, which recently closed. Free Admission. CLICK HERE for more information.
Facebook Page Link
Visit our FACEBOOK page to see what's new!
AOC 2018 NEWSLETTER
Now Posted Online
CLICK HERE  to read the online version of Andover's 2018 Newsletter.
Andover Organ Company
Seventieth Anniversary
1948-2018
To commemorate our 70th anniversary, Matthew Bellocchio has written a detailed history of the company, its key people, and its innovative work, which appeared as the cover feature in the June 2018 issue of The Diapason. CLICK HERE to see this illustrated article.
New Katelyn Emerson CD
Now Available for Purchase/Download
September 09, 2018
Katelyn Emerson's stunning recording of our Opus 114 in Baltimore, MD is now available at the ProOrgano website.

CLICK HERE to purchase the CD.

CLICK HERE to download the MP3 version.


New Katelyn Emerson CD
"Inspirations" Preview Video
June 05, 2018

Katelyn Emerson has recorded her second Pro Organo CD album, “Inspirations”, on Andover Opus 114 at Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore. The album features works by Rheinberger, Buxtehude, Parker, Bairstow, Daquin, Langlais, Duruflé and Lauren. CLICK HERE for the preview video, in which she plays excerpts from the Rheinberger Passacaglia (Sonata 8, Op.132) and Rachel Laurin's Finale, Op.78.


Duxbury Rebuild Featured in
May 2018 TAO Magazine
April 24, 2018
Our recent rebuilding of the 1853 Simmons organ at First Parish in Duxbury, MA is the cover feature article in the May 2018 issue of The American Organist, the national magazine of the American Guild of Organists. CLICK HERE to read the article.
AOC 2017 NEWSLETTER
Now Posted Online
CLICK HERE to read the online version of Andover's 2017 Newsletter.
Rheinberger Organ Sonatas
Bruce Stevens, Organist
Volume 5 Released
July 19, 2017
Raven Compact Discs has released Volume 5 of Bruce Steven's series of the Rheinberger organ sonatas. The disc features three sonatas (No.7 in F minor, No.9 in B minor, No.13 in E-Flat Major) played on three historic American organs: the 1860 E. & G.G. Hook at St. John's Catholic Church in Bangor, Maine; the 1898 Geo. Jardine & Son at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Haverstraw, New York; and the 1868 E. & G.G. Hook at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. CLICK HERE for more information. Andover restored the latter two instruments and cares for all three.
AOC 2016 NEWSLETTER
Now Posted Online
January 01, 2017
CLICK HERE to read the online version of Andover's 2016 Newsletter.
Round Lake Organ
is designated a
National Historic Landmark
On January 11, 2017 the 3 manual 1847 Davis & Ferris Organ in the Round Lake (NY) Auditorium was officially designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. It is the first pipe organ to receive this designation. Andover has maintained the organ since the 1960s.
1906 Jesse Woodberry
Organ Restoration
Lowell, Massachusetts
Andover has been contracted to restore the 1906 Jesse Woodberry organ at St. Patrick’s Church in Lowell, MA. With 3 manuals and 56 ranks, it is the largest organ built by Woodberry, and the largest surviving pipe organ in the City of Lowell. The instrument has been unplayable for nearly a decade. The project will be done in three stages (Console & Choir; Swell; Great & Pedal) over three years, starting this spring, with completion by early 2020.
Opus R-500 Featured in
October 2015 TAO Magazine
Opus R-500, at Saint John's Seminary in Brighton, is the cover feature article in the October 2015 issue of The American Organist, the national magazine of the American Guild of Organists. CLICK HERE to read the article about the rebuilding of the organ.
AOC 2015 NEWSLETTER
CLICK HERE to read the online version of Andover's 2015 Newsletter.
Opus R-205B
Reinstallation Video
In 2013 we restored the 1895 (II/9) Hutchings organ at First Parish Church of Stow and Acton in Stow, MA. A church member made a stop-action video of Jonathan Ross and Andrew Hagberg reinstalling the pipework. Click here to see the video.
More News & Media > >
Opus R-128
1969 - present
Methuen Memorial Music Hall
4 manuals, 85 stops, 116 ranks
Andover Organ Company Opus R-128Andover Organ Company Opus R-128Andover Organ Company Opus R-128Andover Organ Company Opus R-128
The "Great Organ" in the Methuen Memorial Music

For over 50 years, it has been Andover’s duty and honor to care for the world-famous Great Organ in the Methuen Memorial Music Hall (MMMH.) It was originally built in 1857-1863 by E. F. Walcker and Company of Ludwigsburg, Germany for the Boston Music Hall. Unveiled to great acclaim in 1863, it was the first concert organ in the United States and exerted considerable influence on American organ design during the latter part of the19th century. In 1897 Methuen millionaire Edward F. Searles purchased the instrument, completely rebuilt it and erected it in a specially built concert hall designed by noted English architect Henry Vaughan. The instrument was premiered in its new home in December 1909. In 1947, G. Donald Harrison of the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company completed an extensive tonal reconstruction of the organ. Although no significant changes were made to the organ’s mechanisms, the console was made moveable and provided with an electro-pneumatic combination action.

The Great Organ is featured each summer in a 15-week series of Wednesday evening recitals played by noted organists from around the world. In addition to special programs in the spring and fall, it is used many weekends for weddings held in the hall. The MMMH website contains detailed information on all regularly scheduled recitals and concerts; a history, description and stop list of the organ; a history of the Music Hall; and mail order information about available compact discs, DVDs and books.

Andover Organ Company Opus R-128Andover Organ Company Opus R-128Andover Organ Company Opus R-128Andover Organ Company Opus R-128

A concert organ of this size requires more than just a few hours of attention. Each spring we devote several days to “awaken the beast” and get it ready for the concert season, which starts in May. We check its mechanisms and, on a rotating basis, through-tune one entire division per year. We check and through-tune all the reeds, and any flue pipes as necessary. During the concert season we remain “on call” to do any touch-up tuning requested by a recitalist, or necessitated by a change in temperature. Many listeners are impressed by how well in tune the organ sounds, even in beastly heat (the hall does not have AC.) This is no accident; we have honed the tuning of the Great Organ to a fine science.

Given the age of the instrument and the amount of use it receives, it is not surprising that its mechanisms need periodic restoration or renovation. The nature and scope of these projects are determined periodically by the MMMH Board of Trustees, with recommendations from us. We work closely with the Board to implement its vision to maintain the Great Organ as both a historical musical landmark and an up-to-date recital instrument. These projects are normally done during the winter months, when the hall is closed.

A chronological list of our major work on the instrument:

1966 — Replaced the existing blower with a new 3-stage, 2-pressure, 7 12 horsepower Spencer unit.

1970 — Restored the tonal design of the Great division more along the lines of the Walcker original by the addition of a set of chorus reeds. The Great reeds had been removed by G. Donald Harrison in Aeolian-Skinner's 1947 rebuild of the instrument. Utilizing windchest space and stopknobs already available, we installed a 16' Trumpet, an 8' Trumpet and a 4' Clarion. The pipes were made to our specifications by Roland Killinger of the Süd-Deutsche Orgelpfeifenfabrik of Freiberg-Beihingen, Germany.

1993 — Replaced the 1947 single-level electro-pneumatic combination action with a 32-level solid-state system, made by Solid State Logic Ltd. of England. The old combination action machine was left in place in the base of the organ for historical purposes.

2000 — Releathered all 86 stop action motors and fitted them with new silencing muffler covers.

2003 — Recovered the manual keyboards with new non-endangered ivory naturals, refinished the sharps, installed new key bushings and electrical contacts, replaced the old pneumatic coupling action with solid-state switching, and replaced the 1947 cotton-covered wiring with modern cabling.

2005 — Replaced the 1947 pneumatic drawknob motors with Harris electro-repulsion solenoids; replaced the pneumatic tilting tablet coupler assembly with a Harris electro-mechanical coupler assembly, increasing the number of couplers from 20 to 31; rebuilt the right stop jamb terraces from 5 knobs across to 6 to match the left jamb; installed additional oblique drawknobs and labels, and revised the stop layout.

2006 — Moved the Aeolian-Skinner 8' Krummhorn (61 note, spotted metal reed) rank from the enclosed Choir division to the unenclosed Positiv division utilizing a previously unused slider and toeboard of the Positiv windchest, and replaced it with an 8' Clarinet (61 note spotted metal reed rank of Aeolian-Skinner origin) on the Choir windchest.

2007 — Restored the tonal design of the Great division more along the lines of the Walcker original by the installation of a an 8' Gamba stop, utilizing pipes made in 1904 by the Hutchings-Votey Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts. This stop replaced the seldom used 1 1/7' Septieme on the Great division.

2010 — Restored the 16-stage "whiffletree" motor for the Swell expression shutters and added a pneumatic damper to prevent the shutters from slamming when closed quickly.

2011 — Upgraded the combination action from 32 to 128 levels of memory.

We invite you to come to Methuen to see and hear this magnificent landmark in America’s musical history. For further information, visit the MMMH website at: www.mmmh.org.

Photos 1 - 4 by Len Levasseur, © 2011.