LeFrak Concert Hall organ repaired

The whole console - the keyboards and pedals - of Queens College’s Maynard-Walker Memorial Organ was sent via FedEx to The Netherlands for repairs recently.
The organ, modeled after Dutch and North German organs from 1700 that played the music of Bach and his contemporaries so well, was constructed for the Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Concert Hall’s grand opening in 1991 by the Bedient Pipe Organ Company of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Jan-Piet Knijff, organist-in-residence and adjunct assistant professor at the college’s Aaron Copland School of Music, became aware that over time “certain technical concerns needed to be addressed if the instrument was to fully realize its artistic potential.”
Knijff researched companies to address the situation, and found expert help in the Dutch firm Flentrop Orgelbouw. The company from Zaandam, The Netherlands, is the world’s most experienced builder of this particular type of organ, with over 80 organs to its credit in the United States alone.
The main job was to make the route from the organ’s air reservoir - the windchest - to the pipe as airtight as possible and many of the large pipes visible from the outside were in danger of collapsing under their own weight.
At each stage of the renovations that were undertaken on site, the firm sent specially trained employees, who took up residence in the school’s music building to complete the months’ long project.
Knijff, himself a native of The Netherlands, acted as consultant, helping to identify the features that needed enhancement to selecting the organ builder and guiding the actual work.
The sound of the organ has become brighter and fuller. “The Maynard-Walker Memorial organ can now take its place as one of the eminent organs for music of the North German School in the New York area,” said Edward Smaldone, director of the Copland School of Music.
The Aaron Copland School of Music dates to the founding of Queens College in 1937 and is one of the college’s most distinguished departments. The building in which the school is now housed was completed in 1991. Designed by architect Robert Marquis, it fuses an aesthetically beautiful environment with a structure that meets the specialized needs of the music school.
At the heart of the music building is LeFrak Concert Hall, a 487-seat recital hall considered by some to be one of the finest in the metropolitan area. Musicians and audience alike appreciate its exceptional acoustics, by Peter George Associates, designer of Merkin Hall in Manhattan.