Organ Recital & Shop Presentation at Historic Textile Mill in Cooleemee

Lewtak Pipe Organ Being Built in Historic Textile Mill in Cooleemee NC.

On Saturday, April 16th at the mill in Cooleemee, Dr. Timothy Olsen, Kenan Professor of Organ, U of NC School of the Arts will performing on the new LEWTAK handmade pipe organ destined for the Osterhab Kirke (Church) in Denmark.  The public is invited.

The organ was designed, engineered and built by hand over the last 18 months, with construction over the last 12 months by Tom Lewtak occurring inside the historic textile mill in Cooleemee.  The recital is a free community event.

Saturday, April 6th at 1 pm
Stokes County Yarn Company, 314 Main Street
COOLEEMEE, NC 27014

Tom Lewtak was educated as an organist, having two master’s degrees in Organ Performance. His inspiration to become an organbuilder came at the age of 16 when he viewed building process of the monumental organ at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Gdansk (Danzig), Poland, by the German firm of Hillebrand.

Later, he took organ building and design during his five years at the Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland.  The following years took him to Denmark and Norway, where he apprenticed with Carsten Lund Organ Builders of Copenhagen.  He acquired his voicing skills from Mogens Pedersen, a man who for over twenty years was the chief voicer of the legendary Frobenius Organ Builders.

Tom’s organ building knowledge is not just theoretical, but came from first-hand experience with one of the best organ builders in Europe. He is responsible for tonal design, pipe scaling, voicing, windchest and action design.  It is his artistic vision that emerges through the sound of our organs.