Phil Jamison and Bob Conant have indicated an interest in pipe organ
builders in the Netherlands, and my wife, Halie, and myself were just
there, and had a chance to tour one factory and see a series of
organs.  The factory that we toured was the Reil Brothers, the address
of which is as follows:

             Orgelmakerij Gebr. Reil
             Postbus 21
             8180 AA Heerde
             The Netherlands (I don't know a phone number; no e-mail)

We were warmly greeted by Albert Reil, a co-owner with his brother
Johan.  He spent nearly two hours with us going through the plant after
we first had coffee and a chance to hear some of his philosophy of
organ building.  We really hit it off, especially since I had had the
chance to volunteer for several periods of time at the organ shop of
Paul Fritts in Tacoma, Washington, and since they make highly similar
organs.  The organs made are all tracker organs greatly influenced by
Schnitger but with many pipes having a high lead content (about 96%).
This is exactly the case with Paul Fritts, and the result are sounds
which are unusually intense, clear and brillant.  For the Reil organs,
all woodwork is oak, and a tremendous amount of oak in various stages
of drying is to be found under shelters outside the building.

The Reil shop is in Heerde, which is about 15-20 miles north of
Apeldoorn which is about 75-80 east of Amsterdam.  About 25 employees
make two to three organs at time in an excellent large facility.  The
shop also does restoration of organs.  It was well woth the visit, and
it was a high point to our recent trip to the Netherlands.

Incidentally, in Apeldoorn is Louw Talstra who helped us to make the
contact with the Reil shop, and who is a church organist and let us
play the organ at his church (a 1m11r 1940 tubularpneumatic).  His
e-mail address is <ltaslstra@xs4all.nl>, he is very friendly and an
excellent contact.  He does not have an interest in automatic musical
instruments, however, as far as I know.

If anyone contacts either Albert Reil or Louw Talstra, feel free to
mention our names.

Carl Dodrill¶
cdodrill@u.washington.edu