Organ apprenticing by day and attending flight school well into the night, Orso learned the arduous trade of making these instruments come to life again.īut flying 25 days a month for steel companies took its toll on his marriage. He started an apprenticeship as a backup, “in case I couldn’t fly forever,” he recalled. Watching with awe as the man plied his trade, the engrossed Orso was soon transported back to that day at school and hatched a new plan. It was an idle weekday when his parents asked him to let in an organ repairman to work on their home instrument. When he returned from service in his early 20s, Orso experienced an organ epiphany. He worked on B-52s being sent to Germany. Instead of following in his father’s footsteps as a car mechanic, he had a four-year career as an electronics repairman in the Air Force. While attending parochial school, he watched with intrigue as its church organ was repaired, he said. The Syracuse, New York, native became fascinated by organs at an early age. “My father worked until he died.” Tuning into a career “It’s not in my genes to really retire,” Orso said. “Though there is a lot of Cubic Zirconia, a diamond is a serious investment,” just like an organ.Īs long as musicians still take a shine to the instrument, guys like Orso will fix them. “There are young people entering the industry, and that will continue because people will always buy diamonds,” he said. Another outfit, the American Guild of Organists teaches teenagers the ins and outs of organ repair, Bellocchio said. He is the past president of the American Institute of Organbuilders, an association that holds training seminars across the country on organ repair. The market for custom pipe organs has slowed as churches disappear and the cost of the instruments rises - but the industry will likely survive, according to Matthew Bellocchio, project team leader for Andover Organ Company in Massachusetts. “There aren’t any schools to learn this trade, but there are people still buying brand new pipe organs,” he said. He has approached vocational schools to teach the subject. “How many kids growing up have an organ in their house?” So what’s the appeal? Maybe if I was a computer repairman I’d get more interest,” Orso said. “I went to job fairs and not a single student came to my table. He’s tried to entice the next generation of Maine repairmen and has struck out time after time.
Unlike farming, organ work has not undergone a do-it-yourself renaissance. There is no glamour in his craft and little cool tech involved. Youth today don’t have that kind of time. The $193,000 job was a cause for celebration. Last Easter the Hammond Street Congregational Church in Bangor debuted a refurbished pipe organ that had not been played in 60 years. Here in Maine, not all churches have the resources to restore organs. Cities like New York, with large cathedrals housing majestic organs, require regular repair and there is plenty of work. Orso hates the phrase “dying breed,” but he knows that’s just what he is - especially in largely rural Maine. The churches are keeping me going,” he said.
“An organ is becoming as extinct as my work. When the septuagenarian puts down his tuning knife, who will pick it up? The work and income are steady, even though he doesn’t advertise or have a website, and relies on word of mouth to find clients.īut he fears his chosen trade’s future is endangered.
“If it’s in a church and plays music, I’ve probably worked on it,” Orso said inside his workshop, a three-car garage attached to his modest home off Brighton Avenue. Plying this hands-on trade in Portland for 40 years, Orso has been in and out of churches with more frequency than some clergy. In the hands of this master organ repairman, no instrument is too grand or too average. He doesn’t build organs he repairs, restores and modernizes them. in Gorham - Orso stands out for his solo dedication. At the service, parishioners cheered and cried as the organ thundered back to life with verve.Īs one of a handful of organ repairmen left in southern Maine - there’s Faucher Organ Company in Biddeford and David E. “He does not settle for anything but perfection.”Īfter working on the church’s ailing organ from June to December last year, Orso had the instrument humming like new in time for Christmas Eve. “Nick is an artist,” said Joe Devito, who hired Orso to restore the church’s 1930 Estey organ. Over at the First Congregational Church of Bridgton Maine, a similar tale is told.
Parishioners were enraptured, said Don Kent, who served on the church’s music committee a year and and half ago, when Orso was called in to rebuild the organ.
#Estey organ collectors free#
At the Limerick Free Baptist Church, Orso made a forlorn pipe organ play again after 20 years of near silence.
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