Dobson Pipe Organ Builders

Dobson Pipe Organ Builders is a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Lake City, Iowa.

The organ of Merton College Chapel, Oxford (2013)

The company was founded in 1974 by Iowa native Lynn A. Dobson, who served as President and Artistic Director until his retirement in February, 2020.[1] The company employs 20, and has produced over 95 new instruments. It has also restored a number of historic organs, and tunes and maintains a variety of instruments in the upper Midwest. First known for the construction of mechanical action organs, the company has since the 1990s also undertaken the construction of organs with electric actions, most employing slider windchests. Notable instruments built by Dobson include the organ at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California (which includes some pipes retained from the organ of the former St. Vibiana's Cathedral), and the organ for the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra.[2][3] Major church installations include a 95-rank organ installed at Highland Park United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas, in 2009, and an 84-rank instrument installed at Independent Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama in 2012. In 2013, Dobson completed a new mechanical action instrument for Merton College Chapel, making the firm one of a very few American organ builders to send its work to England. In 2018, Dobson completed a 126-rank instrument for Saint Thomas Church in New York City; it is currently the largest instrument built by the firm.

Currently, the firm is working on a 51-rank organ for John and Alice Buter Hall at the University of Dubuque, and a large four-manual instrument for St James' Church, Sydney.

References
  1. Leibel, Katie (October 24, 2019). "BLC celebrates 40th anniversary of Dobson Opus 10 Organ". The Free Press. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  2. Bush, Douglas Earl; Kassel, Richard (2006). The Organ: An Encyclopedia. Psychology Press p. 148. ISBN 978-0-4159-4174-7.
  3. Haga, Evan (April 26, 2019). "Trudy Pitts Dies at 78". JazzTimes. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
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