JUST WALK into a decent-sized American church, say: Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago (photo), or Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, or go to Carnegie Hall in New York, Yale in New Haven or Harvard near Boston, or on the left coast, the St James Episcopal Cathedral in Fresno, California. In each building there’s an organ made by Flentrop from Zaandam. In 102 American churches and concert halls, the music comes from a Flentrop organ.
Dutch organ making in America started when young Dirk Flentrop built the organ for the 1939 World Exhibition in New York. The expo attracted 44 million visitors, and soon churches and concert halls across America began asking for Dutch organs. Flentrop was the son of an organ builder, but the inspiration for success came from Albert Schweitzer, himself an organist in Strasbourg. He said Dirk could be a good one. This turned out to be true.
Try it out: ask Alexa in your living room to play a Bach organ concerto from Carnegie Hall, What you’ll hear is Zaandam’s Flentrop.
