Cathedral of St. Peter

In the large Gothic cathedral in Belleville, Illinois is our Opus One, a large newly renovated instrument. Originally an organ by M. P. Möller, (Op. 10360, 1967) this organ has been transformed from a Neo Baroque organ to a Romantic instrument capable of accompanying the quietest subtleties of Roman Catholic liturgy as easily as leading a capacity congregation of over 1,200.

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The bulk of the organ is located in twin cases in the rear balcony of the church. The pipework in the instrument was rescaled and revoiced to match the wishes of the music director Dr. Richard Thompson and the empty Choir chamber was provided a windchest and a Romantic Choir under expression. The original Nave division was left untouched as a tribute to the work of M. P. Möller. The large three-manual drawknob console in the gallery and the smaller two-manual console in the nave have both been given a complete refresh, with newly installed solid-state relays, drawknob and rocker tab units, and refurbished keyboards and pedalboards. New walnut interior woodwork was fitted to allow for the installation of each component and new controls were provided, where required. The organ was completely re-wired and new and vintage pipework voiced and installed in the organ to achieve harmonic cohesion.

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In an attempt to create the most flexible instrument and provide for the needs of the congregation, the original casework and many of the chests were retained. Digital voices expand the tonal pallette offered without diminishing the core winded instrument and offer some flexibility in tuning and expression to be achieved in the stratified cases of the original Möller. To hear an example of the organ and learn more about the process of building this instrument from Christopher Soer and Brent Johnson, check out this video from the Organ Media Foundation.