Emmanuel’s Rieger Organ Gets Major Tuneup

Emmanuel’s Rieger Organ Gets Major Tuneup

By Pat Reilly

Samantha Koch, of the Staunton-based Greenleaf Organ Company, is the first woman to found such a company in North America. In late August, she and her colleague, Chris Bono, completed the refurbishment of the 1979 Austrian-made Reiger pipe organ at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Middleburg.

In addition to a cleaning of all the parts inside and out after 40 years, Hoc said her team, which also includes her architect husband, Daniel, rebuilt the broken grillwork in the knee panel, reworked the worn pedals and reshaped the pipes to be more conducive to congregational singing. “New organ pipes make no sound,” Bono said. “They must be shaped to sing.” To be an organ builder, one also should be a musician, able to craft new wooden pieces and also create the pipes from scratch. The team then “voices” the organ, which takes into account the size of the room and elements such as carpeting, padding, curtains and cushions that absorb the sound.

Koch pointed out that there aren’t many excellent voicers in the country. She went to the University of Oklahoma, which had one of the only organ building programs in the country. Bono learned to voice an organ while majoring in music at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia.

“It’s still really and old trade passed down for generations,” she said. “Usually learned by doing.”

Stay tuned for an organ rededication recital at Emmanuel Church this fall.