We maintain, rebuild, and build new pipe organs.
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The Tudor Organ
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At Hupalo & Repasky Pipe Organs, caring for the organs we are responsible for is a major focus. The San Francisco Bay Area is filled with lovely pipe organs that need regular care to speak their best.
Each member of our team has decades of experience with organ maintenance and organ building.
John Hupalo started his career in organ building in the early 70's and went on to start his own business making organ pipes, and finally expanding into building his own organs, still making his own pipes in our pipe shop.
Bill Visscher has the distinction of being a Master Organ Builder, a title reserved for only the finest, and he is also a fine organist.
Charles Rus has had a hand in organ building and maintenance all his adult life, and has also been organist for churches and synagogues, and also the San Francisco Symphony.
We are all dedicated to tune, maintain, restore, renovate, relocate, and build/rebuild pipe organs in the finest fashion.
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Among the 80 or so churches, synagogues, universities
and homes whose organs we maintain regularly are:
Stanford University (5 organs)
Sonoma State University
Pacific Union College, Angwin
St. Stephen's Episcopal, Belvedere
St. Lukes Episcopal, San Francisco
Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco
All Souls Episcopal, Berkeley
All Souls Episcopal, Palo Alto
Congregation Sherith Israel, San Francisco
First Congregational, Berkeley
Holy Cross Catholic, Santa Cruz
Calvary Episcopal, Santa Cruz
Old First Presbyterian, San Francisco
St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco
St. Stephen's Episcopal, Belvedere
St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco
Zion Lutheran, Oakland
Our care for these and other organs includes all aspects of organ maintenance: tuning, fixing dead notes and cyphers, wind leaks - the list goes on, including all of the electrical systems of the organ.
Beyond that we also take pipes back to our workshop for more major repairs, sometimes making a new pipe or whole set of pipes as needed. We have often taken a whole stop of pipes for total refurbishing.
We maintain this lovely Möller/DeCamp 1902 tracker organ
at St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco
Charles Rus, organist for this recording
Woodland, California: new case work, new chests, some new pipe work, MIDI, multi-level combination action, totally refurbished console with recessed castors to make it moveable, and added antiphonal organ in the back.
St. Maria Goretti, Scottsdale, AZ
Rebuild, and new low-profile console
Other rebuilds: Paradise Valley United Methodist Church; St. Paul Lutheran, Oakland, CA; United Church of Christ, Cloverdale, CA; University Lutheran Chapel, Berkeley, CA; Piedmont Community Church, Piedmont, CA; Pacific Union College Church, Angwin, CA - an ongoing rebuild.
After decades of song, on April 22, 2018 the Hook-Rosales pipe organ rang out its final tones at First Presbyterian Church in Marysville, CA. A few months later we took the organ apart, piece by piece and pipe by pipe, and we drove it down to Aptos, CA. After a couple of weeks putting it back together, it now graces The Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist.
United Church of Christ, Cloverdale, CA
In the spring of 2003, Janice Hawthorne Timm, Minister of Music contracted Hupalo & Repasky Pipe Organs to rebuild and expand this nine stop tracker organ built by Thomas W. Whalley of Berkeley, California in 1904.
Few examples of Whalley’s work still exist. One is in the First Congregational Church of Alameda, the pipes of which were restored by Mr. Hupalo. In restoring this organ and in line with the Arts & Crafts style, new sides to the case were made of vertical grain Douglas Fir. We also added an 8' Oboe.
We found that the floor had to be leveled and raised to give the organ a proper base. We kept and restored the hand-pumping mechanism. So now the organ can be played in case of a power failure. Fully restored, the Whalley is ready for its second century of music making and inspiration.
Our Team
John Hupalo - Managing Member
"Organ building satisfies
my creative sense."
Steve Repasky - Member
“I was fascinated by pipe organs at a very early age and can remember wondering, unlike most musical instruments, why the pipes do not move when the organ is played. I am always awe-struck by the sound, design, and mechanics of a pipe organ.”
Bill Visscher
Master Organ Builder
"Pipe Organs are the
essence of Life.”
Charles Rus
Associate Organ Builder
"My best friend in High School introduced me to the organ, and it has been a 45-year-long love affair ever since!"
Organ for purchase
This tracker organ was started by Michael McNeil and finished by
Visscher Associates.
Please inquire for details.
We also have a 4 stop continuo organ for sale - 8, 8, 4, 4
4 Stop Continuo Organ - for purchase $25,000. Also for rental.
8' Gedackt
8' Open Wood
4' Principal
4' Flute
Bill Visscher, organist for this recording
Jacksonville, MO Symphony Hall - façade by Hupalo & Repasky, organ by Quimby Pipe Organs
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, LA - façade by Hupalo & Repasky, organ by Rosales Organ Builders
Zion Lutheran Church, Piedmont, CA, Opus 4
Bill Visscher, organist for this recording
Model of Zion Lutheran
Scroll down for more new organs.
6 Stop Continuo Organ
8' Gedackt
8' Open Wood
4' Principal
4' Flute
2' Octave
II Sesquialtera
St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Sacramento
Christ Episcopal Church, Sausalito, CA
The Tudor Organ
The Principal is permanently on with the other four stops
controlled by sliders. The sound of the organ is surprisingly full and has a singing bell like quality. It is our hope that this organ will bring the large amount of sixteenth-century English organ music to life and we will once again be able to experience the sound of these marvelous musical machines. The organ is currently set up at the Memorial Church of Stanford, California.
Because there are very few surviving organs of sixteenth-century England, our Tudor-style organ is based on the recent work of Martin Goetze & Dominic Gwynn of Nottinghamshire, England. In turn, their work is based on a 1995 rediscovery of a grid, table, and upper boards of an organ that once played at the collegiate church of Wingfield in Suffolk. At present, there are only two of these five rank Tudor-style organs in existence.
Unlike the recreation of this five rank organ by Goetze & Gwynn, our organ utilizes metal pipes. Pipes are fashioned of high tin metal with the façade pipes being embossed and gilded. The center façade pipe is painted en grisaille.
Our case is made of stained quarter sawn white oak and features hand carved panels of linen fold and Tudor rose carvings. This form of case decoration is inspired by the organ cases at St. Nicholas Church, Stanford-on-Avon and the organ case at the Parish Church of St. Stephen, Old Radnor, Wales.
Keys are made of European pear wood with the sharps made of ebony. The keyboard range is 40 notes from low F to high A, minus high G#. Therefore, there are 40 pipes per rank for a total of 200 pipes for the organ. To supply wind to the organ, it is equipped with two large feeder bellows.
From historical data, these somewhat small but tonally versatile organs were the norm in Tudor times. The organ is tuned in Pythagorean tuning and is pitched a 4th above modern pitch. The unusual specification of the organ is as follows:
8′ Principal
4′ Octave
4′ Octave
2′ Super Octave
2′ Super Octave