St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Chestnut Hill
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Russell & Company Organ Builders
Chester, Vermont
Stoplist
From the Builder
It is a rare privilege to meet with a client who is as thoroughly informed about an organ project as music director Andrew Kotylo and the good people of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. Long known for its fine music program, superb choir, and excellent organists, the church was ready to commit to the restoration of its aging instrument.
Under the guidance of former music director Zach Hemenway, St. Paul’s had been studying a course of action for its much-enlarged Aeolian-Skinner (Opus 724 A-B) for many years. Thanks to the generous gift of a donor in 2019, the church was at last in a position to proceed with a comprehensive renovation. Though the organ had been very well cared for by Steve Emery and was largely releathered between 1998 and 2002, the ravages of time, water damage, and accumulated dirt—along with layers of additions to the original 73 ranks—had created a situation where it was increasingly difficult to maintain. The time had come to resolve these issues.
In early August 2019, I received a call from John Schwandt, inquiring if we might be interested in bidding on the rebuilding of the organ at St. Paul’s. We have had the privilege of working with Dr. Schwandt on several large projects over the years, most notably our instruments at First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, New York, and Zion Lutheran Church in Appleton, Wisconsin. A month later, my colleague Larry Nevin and I inspected the instrument and had a preliminary meeting with Dr. Schwandt, Dr. Kotylo, St. Paul’s Music Guild, and the vestry. Shortly after proposals were submitted and refined, we were offered the project, with the contract signed in February 2020.
St. Paul’s organ was at its core the last of G. Donald Harrison’s instruments to be completely finished under Harrison’s own supervision. With a tonal design heavily inspired by the Baroque revival, its dedication recital was played by Baroque proponent Carl Weinrich only eight days before Harrison’s sudden death on June 14, 1956. Opus 724 A-B was itself a rebuild of the 1929 E.M. Skinner, Opus 724. Relatively little of the original Skinner was ultimately retained, save for the console, three expression chambers, and the chests located behind the reredos. Five ranks were reused: the Swell 16′ Gamba and 4′ Flute Harmonique, the Pedal 16′ Gedeckt, and the Voix Eolienne II located in the ceiling chamber halfway down the nave. Otherwise, all the pipework was new, with most pipes functionally displayed on either side of the reredos in a striking design made in collaboration with the artist Henry Pitz.
In subsequent years, under the direction of St. Paul’s then-organist Richard Alexander, the instrument was considerably expanded along lines more suited to accompanying English choral literature and leading congregational singing. These new stops were placed in both the nave ceiling chamber and within the remaining space available in the chancel. Walker digital voices were also incorporated to fill in the holes in the tonal scheme, especially in the Pedal division.
Several goals beyond simple restoration work were set out for the present project:
• Restore the Harrison core of the original tonal and visual design.
• Replace all the chancel organ mechanism except for the 1929 expression chambers.
• Redesign the internal layouts for better tuning access and ease of future maintenance.
• Relocate pipework, previously buried in narrow corridors surrounding the main organ chamber, to locations with better tonal egress.
• Restore all chancel pipework, adding bottom octaves where common basses were previously employed.
• Reduce dependence on digital voices for foundation tone and orchestral color.
• Provide both new and vintage pipework to complete the tonal scheme and to compensate for an acoustic environment that favors high-frequency tone while absorbing lower frequencies.
• The existing console, nave organ, and switching system were to remain intact and functional during the chancel organ’s absence. The addition of temporary Walker voices taken from samples of the original organ filled in for the missing chancel Great, Swell, Positiv, and Pedal divisions.
In late February 2020, we returned to measure pipework and plan for the removal of the chancel instrument; this was accomplished in the early summer months with appropriate pandemic precautions.
As we examined the pipework and other materials brought to the shop, we realized the full extent of the work ahead. There was considerable damage to both pipework and structure as a result of water, modification, mishandling, and accident. We also discovered that several key ranks in the principal choruses had been moved from the locations specified in the Aeolian-Skinner shop notes. Some of the other ranks that had been added were effectively ruined in trying to make them do more than the scaling would support. Once the final tonal decisions were made, the organ layout and chest designs were finalized.
Since Russell & Co. is a small firm and the pandemic effectively prevented us from finding and adding skilled staff, we turned to our colleagues at Organ Supply Industries to produce windchests, constructed in the Aeolian-Skinner style to our specific designs and layouts. Meanwhile, our woodshop focused on extensive restoration work to the 1929 expression chambers, building new wind systems and support structures, and wood pipe restoration.
As our pipe shop worked through the ranks, our voicer Larry Nevin began his work. Larry brings the unique qualification of having worked as a voicer and tonal finisher for Aeolian-Skinner during the Gillett years. His understanding of that tonal style, also evident in this Harrison instrument, was key to the success of this project. It has been a privilege working with Larry through the past four decades.
We also thank the skilled artisans at A.R. Schopp’s Sons for providing the stunning polished brass 8′ Trompette en Chamade and 16′ Pedal Ophicleide stops. A word of thanks as well to Joe Clipp at Trivo for the bottom octave of the Bass Clarinet. I would also like to thank the following staff and contractors for their dedication and fine work on this project:
• Stephen Russell: managing director, project design, pipemaking, reed and flue voicing
• Carole Russell: pipemaking, leather work, wiring, general installation assistance
• Paul Elliott: fine woodworking, carving, general installation work
• Gail Grandmont: pipemaking and restoration, leather work, wiring harnesses, control systems installation
• Larry Nevin: reed and flue voicing, general installation assistance
• Erik Johansson: wood pipe restoration, other minor woodshop work
• Matt Clark, apprentice: electrical work, general shop and installation help
• John Peiffer: installation assistance
The pandemic, related supply chain delays, renovation work at the church, and hidden damages significantly extended our original schedule for the project. Organbuilding is both an art and a craft. The craft part (building reliable mechanisms) is relatively easy, but the art of making every pipe be as musical as it can be is our prime focus. After all, would an orchestra conductor tolerate a poor player? It has always been our position that quality is of the essence. Fortunately, the people of St. Paul’s agree.
Soli Deo Gloria
Stephen J. Russell
Founder and Director
Russell & Company Organ Builders
From the Director of Music
I had known of the organ at St. Paul’s, Chestnut Hill, long before I became director of music at the church in 2019—initially from a photo of its unique, functional pipe display among the church’s intricate wood carvings that was included in William H. Barnes’s The Contemporary American Organ. More recently, I had heard quite a lot about the instrument as it was expanded under the careful direction of incumbent organist Richard Alexander. When I finally got to know the organ firsthand in my initial year on the job at St. Paul’s, it became clear that preserving its striking visual aesthetic and eclectic tonal palette would be fundamental to the project I was tasked with overseeing.
To be sure, the organ of St. Paul’s was hardly the same instrument that it had been in the 1950s—one that was an anomaly even among G. Donald Harrison’s later designs, with its abundance of high-pitched mixtures and extremely mild, small-scaled foundational tone. By the time he concluded his distinguished tenure of nearly 40 years (1970–2008), Rick had left it a much more well-rounded instrument through the discerning additions of new and vintage pipework by Skinner, Austin, Schoenstein, and others. Alongside the original sparkling choruses, antique reeds, and colorful flutes were a plethora of lush strings, orchestral voices, and commanding solo reeds. Rather than sounding like proverbial oil and water, however, these stops worked as a unified whole.
Opus 724 A-B remains an important part of this organ’s identity, but such was the success of the expanded instrument that turning back the clock to 1956 was never a consideration in 2020. Instead, the aim was to help the St. Paul’s organ be the best version of itself by rebuilding or replacing much of its mechanism, redesigning its internal layout to make it easier to service, and going even further down the tonal path that Rick had blazed. For instance, while this instrument had become well known for its capacity to “gush” with its numerous string ranks, as well as to accompany singing, I wanted to further enhance its effectiveness in both areas. The specification has now grown by two sets of celestes (for a total of 13), and there is also a second expressive division within the chancel, the Choir, to complement the original Swell and the two enclosed divisions in the nave that Rick had added. Additionally, several new Walker 32′ voices and the new Schopp 16′ Ophicleide in the Pedal have added a new dimension of “gut punch” to match the enhanced foundational tone.
Steve Russell and his top-flight team have proven to be the perfect match for this complex project, giving it an unparalleled degree of TLC and demonstrating considerable dedication to getting it right. With a background that combines thorough training in church music and engineering, Steve is a remarkably resourceful and creative artisan. He has been committed to preserving the organ’s existing resources to the greatest extent possible, but at the same time he is eminently pragmatic and does not make the blind assumption that what is old is necessarily good. One of the numerous examples of Steve’s ingenuity is his repurposing a 1906 Estey wooden 16′ Contrabass and placing it on the rear wall of the gallery. This stop has the magical effect of “pulling” the bass line from the chancel into a room that eats lower frequencies for breakfast, so that the congregation is able to viscerally feel the organ and be more encouraged to sing. I also hasten to add that Steve’s shop produced nine and a half new ranks for this instrument, including the beautiful 4′ Nachthorn on the Great and two sets of celestes. How many small firms can still lay claim to making their own metal pipework?
In Opus 62, Russell & Co. has given St. Paul’s and the greater Philadelphia community an instrument capable of unmatched versatility and power, one that is equally thrilling in both its pianissimo and fortissimo, and one that will inspire generations to come in the worship of Almighty God.
Andrew J. Kotylo
Director of Music
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill
