Hans-Ulrich Erbslöh, who first came to Hawaii nearly 50 years ago to install the Beckerath organ, is back in town, along with his assistant, Bernd Becker, to service the two organs in the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, in addition to the J. W. Walker organ at St. Christopher’s Kailua; the Beckerath organ at Holy Innocents, Maui; and the Oberlinger organ at St. John’s Episcopal in Kula, Maui. They’ll also install a new music rack on the pipe organ I have in my condo. Because my vision has changed in the last ten years, I need now to have the music rack closer.

It was sometime in the mid-1990s that we were all taken by surprise to learn that all pipe organs need major overhauls every 20-25 years or so. It’s something akin to taking your car in for a major service at 20,000 miles, or whatever is recommended for your vehicle. In the case of a pipe organ, this means that all the pipes are removed from the case, cleaned, and revoiced if necessary, and other measures taken to ensure that the instrument is all in good working order. It’s at times like these that we discover there are cockroach eggs, dead geckos or other critters in the organ! At that time, the church simply did not have the funds necessary to do this, so I embarked on a personal campaign to raise $35,000 for this project. I even took a 16-hour grant writing course to learn how to ask foundations for money! With many people’s help, we raised the money in time to have the work done.

Ever since then, the Lutheran Church of Honolulu has put away money every month for this project. They were able to successfully fund the second overhaul of the big organ shortly before the 40th anniversary (2015) with no need for an additional fundraiser.

[In case you’d like to read more about the history of the organ at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, you can view a PDF of the 40th anniversary program in which I included historic newspaper clippings and articles detailing its installation.]

Now, though, it’s time to overhaul the continuo organ, the small organ that is used for chamber music and on which I have enjoyed playing duets with the big organ. We were able to get the continuo organ on loan for the performances of the St. Matthew Passion in the year 2000, then embarked on a campaign to purchase the instrument, in which we asked 28 people to contribute $1,000 each to cover the total cost of $28,000. The local chapter of the American Guild of Organists actually contributed $3,000 and challenged its members to come up with a matching gift — and they did just that, making their total gift $6,000! The organ was one of three identical instruments made by the Beckerath firm, and the miracle was that Carl Crosier persuaded United Airlines to fly the instrument from New York to Hawaii completely free of charge!

The continuo organ needs a major checkup this time…. the leather holding the stoppers need to be replaced, and some of the low pipes need adjustment in order to be tuned properly.

I’ll never forget this photo that appeared in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on May 16, 1975, with Hans working with the master, Rudolf von Beckerath, marking this the last instrument Herr von Beckerath personally voiced in the United States before his death. Since then, Hans has come to Hawaii many, many times to tune and maintain the instrument; and nearly every time he has stayed in our home. This time, though, thanks to Frank and Sue Haas who will be hosting Hans while I’ll be hosting Bernd. Thanks also to Billie Jean Ries for the generous loan of her car for Hans during his stay.