2025 NEW RESEARCH

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

O R G E L P A R K

S Y M P O S I U M

2 0 2 5

 

N E W    R E S E A R C H

 

 

The 18th International Orgelpark Symposium, taking place on June 5th, 6th, and 7th, showcased new research concerning organ art on three levels: research by instrument builders, research by scholars, and research by musicians. On all three levels a remarkable activity can be observed, suggesting that the organ is actually becoming successful at its transition into a 21st century instrument: it proves to fit any music by activating its historic roots, giving access to them in ways considered unthinkable until only recently.

 

The Symposium brought together some of the main key figures in recent organ history, including Yves Rechsteiner (Toulouse-les-Orgues, initiator of the Explorateur Organ), Daniel Glaus (his project Organ-Innov-Um laid the foundations for the current developments), Hans-Ola Ericsson (who initiated the realization of the Orgel Acusticum, the huge hyperorgan in Piteå, North-Sweden), Randall Harlow (who coined the very term ‘hyperorgan’), Nils-Henrik Asheim (who pioneered hyperorgan music before the term existed at all), and Hampus Lindwall (who combines past and future in ways beyond anyone else's talents); as well as the organ builders Jürgen Scriba (presenting a brand-new dynamic organ valve, developed over the past year), Tony Decap (doing the very same, in a very different fashion), and Claudius Woehl (representing the next generation of organ builders). Next to these men, the symposium opens the Orgelpark’s floor for no less than fifteen young and very active researchers and artists, including Francesca Ajossa, Annie Garlid, Elisabeth Hubmann, Katta, Jasmine Karimova, and Amarante Nat.

 

Next to their contributions, the symposium schedule included ample time for discussions, as well as three full-fledged evening concerts.

 

 

 

S Y M P O S I U M   D A Y   1   /   T H U R S D A Y   /   J U N E   5

WELCOME & MUSIC

Hans Fidom / Jasmine Karimova

 

KEYNOTE 

Yves Rechsteiner: New approaches to organ art

 

NEW TECHNOLOGIES [1]

Tony Decap / Yves Rechsteiner: the SMARTValve

gamut.inc plays the Decap organ / presents its organ project

 

LECTURE

Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn

Funicity to Feedback: Listening through/as Lutherie

 

LECTURE / CONVERSATION

Daniel Glaus: Looking back at the Organ-Innov-Um project

 

NEW TECHNOLOGIES [2]

Adrian Foster: The harmonic hyperorgan

 

CONCERT 

Danya Pilchen: Paper Braids

 

 

S Y M P O S I U M D A Y   2   /   F R I D A Y   /   J U N E   6

MUSIC GLOBAL HYPERORGAN EVENT: AULOS (KEVIN ERNSTE)

Christoph Bull / Los Angeles (First Congregational Church),

Randall Harlow / Amsterdam, Andrew Blackburn / Melbourne

 

THE HYPERORGAN NETWORK

Jan Stricker and Bjørn Ross: the Copenhagen Organ Sound Art Festival

Maria Gajraj: the Sapphonix initiative in Montreal

 

NEW TECHNOLOGIES [3]

gamut inc: A transportable hyperorgan

Jakob Lkk: A transportable hyperorgan

 

KEYNOTE

Bill Thompson: Situational Investigations

 

MUSIC

Katta: Transcendence

 

NEW RESEARCH [1]

Michael König: Early examples of a globalized pipe organ culture

Jaap Jan Steensma: The Organ as an Identity Marker, 1574-1798

George Rahi: Music for the augmented pipe organ

Peter Power: rethinking the organ as a composer

Giuliano Bracci: Transcribing / Between listening, memory, invention

Annie Garlid: Organ-core / Sacred organics in a 21st c. music scene

 

CONCERT

Guus Janssen: improvisations / new musics

Jasna Velickovic: Orgelpark Chain Composition

Sound Rebellion: Sonic Event

 

 

S Y M P O S I U M D A Y   3   /   S A T U R D A Y   /   J U N E   7

NEW TECHNOLOGIES [4]

Jürgen Scriba and Michael Krahe: Linear valves:

the holy grail of organ building?

 

KEYNOTE

Holger Schulze and Satoshi Morita: What does an organ pipe sound

like? The craft of organ building and an anthropology of sound

 

MUSICS

Nils-Henrik Asheim: Dziga Vertov's Man with a movie camera

 

Francesca Ajossa: The Ear as an Eye / Playing Cecilia Arditto

 

Hans-Ola Ericsson

Four aspects of '... the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden' 

 

 NEW TECHNOLOGIES [5]

Hannes Ritschel: New AI-inspired organ playing technologies

 

NEW RESEARCH [3]

Mauricio Silva Orendain: The Plasticity of the Pipe

 

John Henry Forster

Refusing Habit: Organ Sound and 'Sound-Based' Organ Works

 

Michele del Prete: A new perspective on 20th century organ art

 

LECTURE

Hampus Lindwall: Organ Horizons Revisited

 

CONCERT (OUDE KERK)

Hampus Lindwall, Ellen Arkbro, Hanne Lippard (ensemble)