Ron Gould has danced his fingers across its keys and guided his feet amongst its pedals, working the pipes, creating the music that filled Stambaugh Auditorium. But from the first time he played Stambaugh's E.M. Skinner Organ in 1960, accompanying the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, Gould knew about the organ's untapped potential.
"The restoration of that instrument had been crying out for a good long while," said Gould, who went on to teach organ at Youngstown State University for 43 years.
Those cries eventually echoed throughout the auditorium -- so loud and clear they could no longer be ignored. Today, in a warehouse in New Haven, Conn., thousands of pieces of Stambaugh's Skinner organ have been dismantled and are in the process of being restored.
"When this organ is finished," said Gould, "it will be one of the great instruments in this country."
An instrument of awe
From time it was first played, Stambaugh's Skinner organ was an instrument of awe. Henry Stambaugh had made a fortune in Youngstown's booming steel industry, and upon his death in 1919 left enough money to build and maintain a large public hall.
In 1926 on Fifth Avenue, Stambaugh Auditorium was opened to the public. Only the finest materials were used, and when it came to selecting an organ, only the best would do. In the mid-1920s, the best organ maker in the U.S. was the Ernest M. Skinner Company of Boston.
The Stambaugh Organ is Skinner's "Opus 582."
"His organs at the time were considered the Duesenberg of pipe organs," said Nick Thompson-Allen, owner of the A. Thompson-Allen Company in New Haven, Conn., where the Stambaugh organ is being restored.
"They were more expensive than any of their competition, and they were much better in quality," he said. "They avoided the mass-produced sound that some of their competitors had. In 1926, when Stambaugh Auditorium purchased that organ, they got the best that money could buy."
The era of organs
Between 1906 and 1931, E.M. Skinner built about 1,200 organs. This was the era of live performances -- of vaudeville -- and organ concerts were all the rage. But by the late 1930s, organ music had fallen out of favor.
"The Skinner organs were either replaced or they were changed totally to try and update them, and that usually spoiled them," said Thompson-Allen.
Either that or "they were literally sawed up and thrown away," he said.
Today, there are only about 190 Skinner organs left and maybe 20 that are in original condition. One of those 20 is the Stambaugh organ.
The Stambaugh Skinner
Stambaugh's Skinner is huge. It contains 3,905 pipes, ranging in size from a pencil to a pipe 32 feet long and 20 by 20 inches at the top. The console has four keyboards that operate 48 stops and 56 ranks. It takes up two chambers on both sides of Stambaugh's stage along with a third room in the basement.
But from almost the first day the organ was installed, the roof over it leaked.
"By the 1950s, it was hardly playable," said Thompson-Allen. "Half of it didn't work because of the water damage, and it just stayed there, untouched."
Not long after he first played Stambaugh's Skinner, Ron Gould, the organ professor, pleaded with the auditorium's board of directors to fix it. But the entire building needed renovated, a priority list had been compiled, and the organ was near the bottom.
A project in the making
But at least it was on the list. So by the time the main concert hall was renovated starting in 2003, the Skinner organ had moved to the top.
"I knew Ron Gould for many, many years," said Bill Conti, a Stambaugh trustee who's driving the Skinner organ restoration project. "I talked with Ron, and then one day we had the Thompson-Allen Company come into Stambaugh, and they went over the organ. Then we got serious."
The A. Thompson-Allen Company was formed in 1952 by Aubrey Thompson-Allen, Nick's father. Aubrey was trained by Henry Willis, a London organ maker, who was considered Europe's finest.
At one point, Willis and Skinner exchanged ideas, the results of which created the finest organs in the world. In 1952, Aubrey started his own organ repair company, specializing in Skinner
organs. His son took it over in 1973.
Fixing the Stambaugh Skinner, though, would take some serious money: $1.3 million, almost nine times its original cost.
Paying for perfection
While Gould, Thompson-Allen and Conti have all played major roles in getting the organ restored, the ultimate "thanks" goes to Joseph G. Bradley.
A native of San Francisco, Joseph Bradley loved the Skinner organ at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, an art museum overlooking San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Built around the same time as the Stambaugh Skinner, and virtually identical, the Legion of Honor organ also needed refurbished. Joseph Bradley donated the money to get it done.
After Bradley died, his executors discovered there was money left over in the organ fund. So they set up the Joseph G. Bradley Charitable Foundation specifically to fund the restoration of Skinner organs.
Stambaugh's board of directors applied for a grant and was awarded $750,000.
"This is the second largest grant that the Bradley foundation has given out," said Conti, with
the San Francisco organ being the largest. "That tells you how important it is."
The state of Ohio also awarded Stambaugh $260,000, and another $70,000 has been donated by private donors. Conti is confident the rest of the money will be raised once people "realize the impact that this organ will have on Youngstown."
But they'll have to wait a while. Stambaugh's Skinner won't be ready until late summer of 2011.
A piece by piece project
It took six months just to remove the organ. Now it's being restored, and then it must be put back together. Plus, the roof that was leaking needed repaired, and the three chambers that housed the organ cleaned and painted.
There was no sense refurbishing the organ if the water leak wasn't going to be fixed.
"It's very labor-intensive work," said Thompson-Allen. "Intensive but productive. Each set of pipes is being cleaned and restored."
As they're finished, the pipes are placed on a testing machine to make sure they're in tune. Nick Thompson-Allen is one of the lucky few that gets to hear them.
"They're just magnificent," he said. "The voicing on this organ is as good or better than I've ever heard in a Skinner organ."
When all is said and done...
When it's finished, Stambaugh is planning free organ concerts.
"I can guarantee you that organists from all over the country will come to see this organ when it's finished, and they'll want to play it," said Thompson-Allen.
Which is, literally, music to Ron Gould's ears. The last time he heard Stambaugh's Skinner was October of 2008, when he set it up for the YSU woodwind ensemble.
"That concert was the last time the organ was played before it was removed," said Gould.
When talking with Gould about the organ, his passion is obvious. He's been there, he's played the Stambaugh Skinner, all the time wondering what it would sound like if perfect.
He will soon find out, though he already knows what the result will be.
"It's going to be fabulous," Gould said.
For more photos of the Stambaugh Skinner organ, click here.
**The audio clip at the top of the page is an example of what the Stambaugh Skinner organ will sound like when complete. The clip comes from the Skinner organ at Yale University. The cut is Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29. The recording is courtesy of JAV Recordings of Brooklyn, New York. For more information log onto www.pipeorgancds.com.
