Pipe Organs: Information, Acquisition and Care
Presented by the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America
Members of Associate Pipe Organ Builders of America (APOBA) firms present an overview of their industry’s current and recent activity; discuss issues relating to the acquisition, restoration, and maintenance of pipe organs; and explain the resources APOBA provides and relevant programs the AGO and APOBA underwrite. Participants are encouraged to come with questions.
Ed Odell
Edward Odell, CAIO, is the great-great-grandson of Caleb Sherwood Odell, a co-founders of J.H. & C.S. Odell. He has worked in the pipe organ industry for more than twenty-five years, including seven at Austin Organs. He has significant experience in nearly every aspect of organ building; in addition to management, his current responsibilities at J.H. & C.S. Odell include mechanical and visual design, cabinet making, voicing, pipe making, and tonal finishing. Since 2002, he has exclusively devoted his time to the rebuilding and expansion of his family’s historic firm, to the point that J.H. & C.S. Odell is now fully outfitted and building new instruments, as well as carrying out detailed restoration work.
Matthew Bellocchio
Matthew Bellocchio is a project team leader and designer at Andover Organ Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He has held similar positions at Roche Organ Company in Taunton, Massachusetts; Marceau & Associates and Bond Organbuilders in Portland, Oregon; and Parsons Pipe Organs in Canandaigua, New York. He also leads Andover’s “Berkshires to Buffalo” maintenance team. He grew up in Brooklyn and began his career in 1969 as a tuner/technician with the Louis F. Mohr Company in the Bronx. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and studied architecture at Pratt Institute. He studied organ privately, serving churches in New York and Massachusetts. He holds the American Institute of Organbuilders’ (AIO) Fellow Certificate, has chaired the AIO Education Committee, served on the AIO Board of Directors, and currently serves as AIO president. He has given presentations at national conventions of the AGO, AIO, and OHS.