Klais Orgelbau

Orgelbau Klais is a German firm that designs, builds and restores pipe organs. It is a family run company, founded in 1882 by Johannes Klais senior and is now run by his great-grandson Philipp Klais. The firm is based in Bonn, Germany, and has completed many large-scale building and restoration projects around the globe in more than a century of organ building.[1]

Johannes Klais Orgelbau GmbH & Co. KG

Type	GmbH, Kommanditgesellschaft
Industry	Pipe organ design and building. Pipe organ restoration
Founded	1882
Headquarters	Kölnstraße 148 • D 53111 Bonn, Germany
Key people	Hans Gerd Klais, Philipp Klais
Products	Pipe organs
Number of employees	64 (2006)
Website	Orgelbau Klais

Johannes Klais - Orgelbau, Kölnstr. 148 in Bonn

History of the company

Johannes Klais studied organ building in Alsace, Switzerland and Southern Germany. He founded his own organ building workshop in Bonn in 1882. His way of building organs was closely bound up with traditional construction methods using slider windchests. But as early as before the turn of the century he built high pressure stops with two mouths on pneumatic cone valve chests. In 1906, together with his son Hans, he introduced electric action. Hans Klais took over in 1925. In his time facade design began to come under the influence of the modern age, ergonomic console designs were also being developed. Hans Gerd Klais, the founder's grandson, took charge in 1965. Philipp Klais, the great-grandson of the founder, studied organ building in Alsace, France; in Germany; and overseas. He now runs the company.

Klais instruments around the world

Here is a short list naming a few of the Klais instruments around the world:

• The Athens Concert Hall, in Athens, Greece with 6080 pipes[2]
• The cathedral in Aachen, Germany.[3]
• The Basilica of Our Lady del Pilar in Saragossa, Spain, with 5.391 organ pipes inserted in a Renaissance (1529-1530) wooden frame, and inaugurated in 2008.
• The cathedral in Cologne, Germany: der Kölner Dom. The main instrument was finished in 1998 and although enormous, it is almost dwarfed inside the colossal gothic church as it clings to the balconies. Klais also restored other organs in the cathedral and added a detached console that operates all of them at once.
• St. Peter's church in Munich, Germany
• The Cathedral in Trier, Germany, 5602 pipes
• The Münster Cathedral, Münster, Germany, approx. 7173 pipes
• The Concert Hall of the Kraków Philharmonic, in Kraków, Poland
• The Concert Hall of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, in Brisbane, Australia, 6566 pipes[4]
• The Abbey in Bath, UK.[5]
• Frauenkirche, Nuremberg
• St. John's, Smith Square, Westminster, UK, a redundant but still consecrated church which commissioned its organ when the building became a concert hall.
• Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK. Finished in 2001, the 6000 pipes symphony organ is now the largest mechanical action organ in the UK.[6]
• Leeds Cathedral, UK
• Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík, Iceland, 5275 pipes.
• Overture Hall in Madison, Wisconsin, United States.[7]
• Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, 4740 pipes, 61 registers
• Petronas Philharmonic Hall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China. Finished in 2007, the 6500 pipes symphony organ with 94 stops is now the largest organ in China.[8]
• St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City, United States. 1978, 2 manuals, 43 ranks.[9]
• The University of Iowa Voxman Music Building Concert Hall in Iowa City, IA, United States, completed in 2016, 3,883 pipes.
• Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg: 4 manuals, 65 registers, 4,765 pipes, completed December 2017.
• Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware Ohio 82 Ranks 55 Stops 4,644 pipes[10]
• The church of Rodeio, in Santa Catarina, Brazil.[11]

• 
  The choir Organ in the cathedral in Cologne, Germany
• 
  The main Organ in the Cathedral of Trier,
  built in 1974
• 
  The organ in the Kraków Philharmonic, Kraków, Poland
• 
  The main organ in the Münster Cathedral, Münster, Germany

References

1. Hermann Simon mentioned this company in his correspondent Book as an example of a "Hidden Champion" (Simon, Hermann: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century : Success Strategies of unknown World Market Leaders. London: Springer, 2009.- ISBN 978-0-387-98147-5.)
2. "Orgelbau Klais Bonn::" (in German). Orgelbau Klais. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
3. "Die Klais-Orgel" (in German). Aachen Cathedral. Archived from the original on 2008-05-04. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
4. "QPAC Concert Hall". www.ohta.org.au. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
5. "Klais Organ". Bath Abbey. Retrieved 2011-09-25.
6. "The Symphony Organ". Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
7. "The Overture Concert Organ". Madison Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
8. "Concert Hall". National Centre for the Performing Arts. Archived from the original on 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
9. "St. Peter's Lutheran organ". NYC AGO. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
10. “Musical assets". Ohio Wesleyan University site. Retrieved 2 August 2018
11. http://orgaopedia.com.br/instrumentos/igreja-matriz-sao-francisco-de-assis-rodeio

Sources

• Hans Gerd Klais: Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Orgel: Aus Anlass der Einhundertjahrfeier Orgelbau Johannes Klais Bonn, 1882–1982. Bonn 1983.
• Architecture of Music. Inspired pipe organs in world class buildings. Johannes Klais Orgelbau (Ed.), Bonn w.J.
• Horst Hodick: Johannes Klais (1852–1925); ein rheinischer Orgelbauer und sein Schaffen. Musikverlag Katzbichler, München/Salzburg 1993, ISBN 3-87397-139-9.
• Ludger Stühlmeyer: Orgelbau in Hof. In: Musica sacra, 133. Jg. Journal 2, Kassel 2013, pp 104–105.

External links

The official website of Orgelbau Klais