Mander Organs

Mander Organs was an English pipe organ maker and refurbisher based in London. Although well known for many years in the organ building industry, they achieved wider notability in 2004 with the refurbishment of the Royal Albert Hall's Father Willis Grand Organ.

Mander built and installed numerous celebrated organs, notably the 68-stop four manual and pedal organ in the Church of St Ignatius Loyola, New York – reportedly the largest mechanical action built by a British builder. Simon Preston said of this instrument: "It is difficult to do justice to this famous instrument in a couple of sentences; suffice to say that to look at this beautiful instrument is to know the sound that will come out of it."[1]

New Mander organs were generally tracker action, which enables the player to give somewhat more expression and removes the delays which are inherent in many electrically actuated organs.

The company was founded in 1936 by Noel Mander. An early setback was the loss of the organ he was working on, along with all his tools, in the first air raid of the Blitz in 1940. The rebuilding of church organs after World War II provided significant business for the company.

Following the retiremen of Noel Mander in 1983, the firm was run by John Pike Mander, Noel Mander's son. On John Pike Mander’s retirement at the end of 2018 the company’s shareholding was transferred to an Employee Ownership Trust, giving all members of staff a stake in the future of the business.[2]. The company unexpectedly closed in July 2020 following financial difficulties exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

Mander organs are found throughout the world, including in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Middle East, Scandinavia and the United States.

Some Mander organs
Organ of Princeton University Chapel (1928); major rebuilding by Mander in 1991

References
  1. www.stignatiusloyola.org
  2. Mander Organs "about" page
  3. "Church Times 7 August 2020 p 4". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  4. Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, NYC, USA Archived 23 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Henry Willis Organ | Royal Albert Hall". Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  6. "The National Pipe Organ Register - NPOR". npor.org.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  7. "The National Pipe Organ Register - NPOR". npor.org.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  8. "The Story of our Organs". Great St Bartholomew. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  9. "The National Pipe Organ Register - NPOR". npor.org.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  10. "The Chapel Organ | StJohns". www.joh.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
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