Johannes Klais – Orgelbau, Kölnstr. 148. Bonn. | |
Company type | GmbH, Kommanditgesellschaft |
---|---|
Founded | 1882 |
Headquarters | Kölnstraße 148 • D 53111 Bonn, Germany |
Key people | Hans Gerd Klais Philipp Klais |
Products | Pipe organs |
Website | klais |
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, a skilled organ builder trained in Alsace, Switzerland, and Southern Germany, established his own workshop in Bonn in 1882. His craftsmanship was deeply rooted in traditional methods, particularly the use of slider windchests. However, even before the turn of the century, he demonstrated innovation by creating high-pressure stops with dual mouths on pneumatic cone valve chests. In 1906, alongside his son Hans, he introduced electric action to organ building.
Hans Klais succeeded his father in 1925. During his leadership, the company embraced modern influences, particularly in facade design, and made advancements in ergonomic console designs.
In 1965, Hans Gerd Klais, the founder’s grandson, took over the business, followed by Philipp Klais, the founder’s great-grandson, who became the fourth-generation manager of Orgelbau Klais.
The company gained international recognition for its restoration of the historic Bamboo Organ at St. Joseph's Parish in Las Piñas City, Philippines. The organ was transported to Germany in 1973, meticulously restored in 1974, and returned to the church in 1975. Beyond restoration, the company trained former church choirboys in organ building, who later established a local organ building and restoration workshop.
Country | image | City | Location | Inauguration year | Pipes | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Buenos Aires | Centro Cultural Kirchner | ||||
![]() | Brisbane | Queensland Performing Arts Centre | 6566 [2] | |||
![]() | Catarina | Church of Rodeio | ||||
![]() | Beijing | National Centre for the Performing Arts | 2007 | 6500 [3] | 94 stops. Largest organ in China. | |
![]() | Reykjavík | Hallgrímskirkja | 5275 | |||
![]() | Aachen | Aachen Cathedral [4] | ||||
![]() | Beuron Archabbey church [5] | |||||
![]() | Cologne | Cologne Cathedral | 1998 | 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. | ||
Hamburg | Elbphilharmonie | 2017 | 4765 | 4 manuals, 65 registers | ||
St. Nicholas Church | 2023 | Connected, can be played from a remote location [6] | ||||
Munich | St. Peter's church | |||||
![]() | Münster | Münster Cathedral | approx. 7173 | |||
Nuremberg | Frauenkirche | |||||
![]() | Trier | Trier Cathedral | 1974 | 5602 | ||
![]() | Athens | Athens Concert Hall | 6080 [7] | |||
![]() | Kuala Lumpur | Petronas Philharmonic Hall | ||||
![]() | ![]() | Kraków | Kraków Philharmonic Concert Hall | |||
![]() | Esplanade Concert Hall | 4740 | 61 registers | |||
![]() | Saragossa | Basilica of Our Lady del Pilar | 2008 | 5391 | Pipes inserted in a Renaissance (1529–1530) wooden frame. | |
![]() | Bath, Somerset | Bath Abbey [8] | ||||
Leeds | Leeds Cathedral | |||||
Westminster | St. John's, Smith Square | Redundant but still consecrated church which commissioned its organ when the building became a concert hall. | ||||
Birmingham | Symphony Hall, Birmingham | 2001 | 6000 | Largest mechanical action organ in the UK. [9] | ||
![]() | Columbus, Ohio | First Community Church | 2022 | 4 manuals, 85 ranks. Dual consoles. | ||
Delaware, Ohio | Ohio Wesleyan University | 4644 | 82 Ranks, 55 Stops. [10] | |||
Madison, Wisconsin | Overture Hall [11] | |||||
New York City | St. Peter's Lutheran Church | 1978 | 2 manuals, 43 ranks. [12] | |||
Iowa City, Iowa | University of Iowa Voxman Music Building Concert Hall | 2016 | 3883 |
The Wiener Musikverein, commonly shortened to Musikverein, is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra.
Symphony Hall is a 2,262-seat concert venue in Birmingham, England. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 12 June 1991, although it had been in use since 15 April 1991. It is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and hosts around 270 events a year. It was completed at a cost of £30 million. The hall's interior is modelled on the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The venue, managed alongside Town Hall, presents a programme of jazz, world, folk, rock, pop and classical concerts, organ recitals, spoken word, dance, comedy, educational and community performances, and is also used for conferences and business events as part of the International Convention Centre.
Mozarteum University Salzburg is one of three affiliated but separate entities under the "Mozarteum" moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Mozarteum Foundation and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg are the other two. It specializes in music, the dramatic arts, and to a lesser degree graphic arts. Like its affiliates it was established in honour of Salzburg-born musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The Las Piñas Bamboo Organ in St. Joseph Parish Church in Las Piñas, Philippines, is a 19th-century church organ. It is known for its unique organ pipes; of its 1031 pipes, 902 are made of bamboo. It was completed after 6 years of work in 1824 by Father Diego Cera, the builder of the town's stone church and its first resident Catholic parish priest.
Rieger Orgelbau is an Austrian firm of organ builders, known generally as Rieger. The firm was founded by Franz Rieger. From 1873 it was known as Rieger & Söhne, and from 1879 as Gebrüder Rieger, after his sons took over. At the end of World War II, the firm was nationalised by the Czech government and merged with another workshop as Rieger-Kloss. The Rieger tradition was also continued by the owners and workers of the original firm, who moved to Austria and founded a new workshop as "Rieger Orgelbau".
The Auckland Town Hall is an Edwardian building on Queen Street in the Auckland CBD, New Zealand, known both for its original and ongoing use for administrative functions, as well as its famed Great Hall and separate Concert Chamber. Auckland Town Hall and its surrounding context is highly protected as a 'Category A' heritage site in the Auckland District Plan, registered by Heritage New Zealand as a Category I Historic Place.
The Petronas Philharmonic Hall is Malaysia's first concert hall built specifically for classical music. It is the home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), and has hosted many of the world's leading orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, BBC Symphony and Vienna Symphony.
The Kraków Philharmonic is the primary concert hall in Kraków, Poland. It is one of the largest auditoriums in the city. It consists of the main hall for orchestral performances with 693 seats, and two smaller venues, the Golden Hall and the Blue Hall, for chamber music concerts.
The Lutherkirche is one of four main Protestant churches in Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse, Germany. It was built between 1908 and 1910 in Jugendstil and in accordance with the Wiesbadener Programm, to a design by Friedrich Pützer. With two organs and good acoustics, it is also a concert venue.
Orgelbau Vleugels is a pipe organ company producing organs in modern design and restoring historic instruments. The workshop is located in Hardheim, Germany. The owner is master pipe organ builder Hans-Georg Vleugels. The company has a history spanning over 150 years.
The Tonhalle is a concert hall in Zurich, home to the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, one of Switzerland's leading orchestras. The 1455-seat hall, located at Claridenstrasse 7 in Zurich, was inaugurated in 1895 by Johannes Brahms. The hall is considered to be "acoustically superb". Since 1939, it is part of the building complex Kongresshaus Zürich.
Organ building is the profession of designing, building, restoring and maintaining pipe organs.
Leo Renier is a former Roman Catholic priest and Belgian musician, living in the Philippines since 1969, responsible for the preservation of the Spanish Historical Organs in the Philippines and the revival of its organ culture. He is the moving spirit behind the performance of Baroque music in a country, which eventually may lead to the discovery of Philippine Baroque music. He is the founder of the Las Piñas Boys Choir (1969) and of the International Bamboo Organ Festival, held every year since 1976 at the St. Joseph’s Church of Las Piñas, Metro Manila, a former school director of St. Joseph's Academy until 1994.
Orgelbau Mebold is a company building pipe organs in Siegen, Germany. It was founded in 1967 by Hans Peter Mebold, and has been run since 2018 by his son Mathias Mebold. The company builds new organs, restores historic instruments, and specializes in portable small instruments (Truhenorgel).
The Kölner Philharmonie is a symphonic concert hall located in Cologne, Germany. It is part of the building ensemble of the Museum Ludwig and was opened in 1986. The Kölner Philharmonie is located close to the Cologne Cathedral and the Cologne Main Station. The ensemble was designed by the architects Busmann + Haberer in the 1980s.
Sebastian Küchler-Blessing is a German organist and music educator.
Orgelbau Pieringer is an Austrian organ building company based in the city of Haag in Lower Austria. The founder and owner of the company is the Haag organ builder Johann Pieringer. Orgelbau Pieringer is a reputable organ workshop active for 25 years throughout Austria, Germany and Croatia, as well as a member of International Society of Organbuilders.
Bernhardt Hilbrand Edskes was a Dutch-Swiss organist and organ builder based in Wohlen.
Johann Haselböck was an Austrian organist, composer, author and academic teacher. He was organist at the Dominican Church, Vienna, for 65 years, and was professor of organ and improvisation at the Vienna Music Academy, where he later also served as head of the faculty of church music and as deputy rector. He gave organ concerts in Europe, North America, and the Near and Far East. Haselböck is regarded as a pioneer of Catholic church music in the German language after the Second Vatican Council.