The physical installation of the Joseph W. Schreiber Memorial Organ, our Op. 90 for Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, has been completed. Tonal finishing began on 11 January 2012 with completion anticipated shortly after Easter. The instrument will be dedicated on Sunday, 6 May 2012, with dedicatory concerts planned for the entire month of May.

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Dr. Mardirosian, Dean of the University of Tampa’s College of Arts and Letters, has recorded a program of solo works on Op. 89 for Centaur Records. Please see our Recordings page for more information.

We are deeply honored to announce that Dobson has been chosen to build a new 44-stop three-manual and pedal mechanical action organ for the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford. Undertaken as part of Merton’s 750th anniversary celebration in 2014, the new organ will be completed by the end of 2013. The oldest of the 38 Oxford colleges, Merton has a vibrant chapel music program under the leadership of Peter Phillips and Benjamin Nicholas, the Reed Rubin Directors of Music. The Rev Dr Simon Jones is the Chaplain, and Paul Hale is serving the College as organ consultant.

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And now for something completely different… We have been engaged to restore Orange City, Iowa’s street organ. Originally built by Charles Marenghi & Cie. of Paris, the instrument was rebuilt by Jac. Minning of Rotterdam in the 1950s. Our work consists of restorative repairs. Dick Lokemoen and Linda McDonald have served as advisors to this project.

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The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, the most-heard concert hall pipe organ in America, continues to be appreciated by Philadelphia audiences. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2011-2012 season offers Respighi’s The Pines of Rome, Barber’s Toccata festiva, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra. For its part, the Kimmel Center’s 2011-2012 Organ Recital Series features our Op. 76 in programs presented by Marilyn Keiser, Jeremy Filsell, the Canadian Brass with Jeffrey Brillhart, and John Weaver. And the organ can be heard in performances by students of Alan Morrison at the Curtis Institute of Musc during some of the 'Postlude Recitals' that follow Philadelphia Orchestra programs.

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A view of our shop building from an historic postcard postmarked August 1908. The building was known as the 'Elposco Block', a contraction of the Electrical Contrete Post and Stone Company, a firm that made specialty concrete items such as electric poles, street markers and fence posts. It is quite possible that they created the fan lunettes above each window in this concrete block building.

The building was remodeled in the 1920s when the building became the first Ford dealership in western Iowa. The corner entrance was removed, the floor in that area of the building was lowered to street level so that automobiles could be driven inside, and the predecessors to the large windows still present in the building were installed. More recently, the building was a John Deere dealership that was gutted by fire in the 1970s, which resulted in the loss of the second story. Dobson purchased the building in 1978.

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In celebration of our company’s 35th anniversary in 2009, we made an online exhibit of some of Lynn Dobson’s drawings. One of the most highly-regarded case designers of his generation, Dobson has proved to be equally at home in modern or historically-inspired idioms. Lynn A. Dobson: Drawings & Projects presents a selection of work from 1974–2009, and includes unrealized designs as well as built instruments.

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