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Made in America Perfecting Pipe Organs Stephen Leslie, 55, drills a small hole in the end of a slender metal pipe at Schantz Organ Co. in Orrville, Ohio (pop. 8,485). After beveling the hole with a hand-held tool, he hits Tuning the pitch on an organ pipe Before his workday is done. Leslie will fine-tune the pitch and tone of more than 100 organ pipes, which when played together will bellow and ring in unison, filling a church with a cascade of beau tiful music. During the last 134 years, Schantz craftsmen have mastered the building and restoration of pipe organs. Today, Schantz organs grace some 3,000 churches and concert halls across the nation, including the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore and Severance Hall in Cleveland. Schantz Organ Co. got its start in 1873, when if 1 illfiBHBPJi x flf * 1 * Workers at the Schantz factory pose for a photo in IB7S. by VIVIAN WAGNER a note on the musical instru ment's keyboard, sending air through the 2-foot pipe. Using his refined sense of hearing, Leslie, who has worked at Schantz for 30 years, listens carefully to the sound resonating through the pipe. “Now I have the pitch, but I want to get rid of the scratch ing sound,” he says, making a slight adjustment to the hole in the pipe. PC Aafl Hpr jJS/t jf*A y 9H m^^hßnEhSHSk Mm Bt * . - A.J. Tschantz, the son of Swiss-Mennonite dairy farmers, began building pipe organs in nearby Kidron, Ohio. Tschantz, who eventually changed his name to Schantz, had a creative mind, invent ing farm tools and a pneumatic oil pump before ultimately using his mechanical and engineering skills to build organs. Schantz passed the organ business on to his sons, and today, several of his third- and fourth-generation descendants own and manage the company. “Craft skills and family are important,” says Victor Schantz, 54, company president and the founder’s great-grandson. “Peo ple here have a sense of honesty and a strong work ethic.” Schantz’s 90 employees devote up to nine months to design, build and install a single organ, which produces music by sending compressed air through sets of metal pipes of various lengths. The process begins with a customized architec tural design to suit the space and wishes of the customer. Working from blueprints, craftsmen and apprentices build every component of the elaborate, often massive, musical instruments. Pipes, electric blowers, wooden cabinets and con soles are constructed by hand and with simple machines, using methods passed down through the generations. Alter constructing and testing the components. workers carefully label and pack them into a truck, which transports the organ to its permanent destination. Once on site, the organ is unloaded piece by piece, often aided by parishioners happy to participate in the process. A team of Schantz employees assembles and installs the organ over a period of one to four weeks, before checking and adjust ing the tone of each pipe, readying the instrument for its premiere. "Those of us who have been here a while have a feeling of pride in the Victor Schantz, company president process," says Neil Jackson, 52, a supervisor in the company’s pipe-making department. "You want to make sure this work continues, that it isn’t lost." The pipes—from 1,200 to 3,000 for each instrument—form the heart of a Schantz organ Page 14 Sftt Su h.irrtz organ console buNt in Orrville, Ohio, > >bs of keyboards, ?o*oui control knobs and pedals. www.americanprofile.com