Gloucester’s C.B. Fisk will unveil its Opus 166 in an open shop event Saturday when visitors can get an inside look at what goes into creating these enormous pipe organs.
The Open Shop Celebration takes place 2-6 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Gloucester workshop at 21 Kondelin Road.
“This is a rare opportunity to tour our shop, experience beautiful organ music, and gain insight into the intricate art and craftsmanship of organ building,” the company said in a program note.
Opus 166 was crafted for The Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables, Florida, and was inspired by French romantic instruments of the 19th century favoring the work of Aristide Cavaille-Coll.
The organ features three manuals or keyboards, 54 stops, 46 independent voices, and three Barker Machines built from first-hand studies of the organs at Notre Dame de la Delbade in Toulouse, France, and Église Saint-Vincent de Carcassonne in Carcassonne, France.
Visitors can tour the shop on their own or join one of three guided tours at 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 p.m., each featuring a demonstration of the organ.
To give a sense of the size, the organ is about 30 feet by 30 feet and stands about 20 feet high. The open workshop event also provides an opportunity to meet the Fisk team and about 20 friends from The Church of the Little Flower. Scale models of many Fisk pipe organs will be available for viewing.
Just last year, many of the Fisk scale models were on view as part of a Cape Ann Museum exhibition at CAM Green. The exhibition highlighted the intersection of the arts and science, and celebrated the works of Fisk in the show “Breath of Life —C.B. Fisk, Designers & Builders of Pipe Organs.”
The company, founded in 1961 by Charles B. Fisk (1925-1983), is one of the most highly regarded organ builders in the world today.
Fisk constructed the largest four-manual mechanical action instruments built in America in the 20th century, including at Harvard University in 1967 and again at House of Hope Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1979. In 2003, C.B. Fisk built a five-manual organ for the Cathedral in Lausanne, Switzerland, the first American organ to be made for a European cathedral, and in 2010 the company installed its first instrument in South Korea, according to an exhibition statement at the time of the museum exhibit.
Michael Kraft, president of C.B. Fisk, noted: “Beyond the music and the use of one’s ears, the visual design of a pipe organ, expressed through our scale models … allows one to use their eyes to delight in these three-dimensional, architectural sculptures.”
Gail McCarthy may be contacted at 978-675-2706, or gmccarthy@northofboston.com.