Jürgen Ahrend

Jürgen Ahrend (; 28 April 1930 – 1 August 2024) was a German organ builder famous for restoring instruments such as the Gothic Rysum organ and the Arp Schnitger organs of the Martinikerk in Groningen, Netherlands, and of St. Jacobi in Hamburg as well as building original instruments. He ran the workshop Jürgen Ahrend Orgelbau in Leer from 1972 to 2004, operating internationally.

Life and career

Ahrend was born in Göttingen on 28 April 1930. From 1946 to 1948, he was an apprentice in the firm of there. He then worked for the firm as an employee. He undertook study travel with , who had also been an apprentice of Ott, to European organ builders, Metzler Orgelbau in Switzerland, Flentrop in the Netherlands and Marcussen & Søn in Denmark. The two formed a partnership in Leer–Loga, Lower Saxony in 1954. They produced 54 new organs and restored 19, until Brunzema left the firm in 1972 to work in Canada. They restored the original tuning of organs from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, beginning with the , the and the Gothic Rysum organ. When they built a new organ in Baroque style for the Zorgvlietkerk in Scheveningen in 1958, they received international recognition. They built a new transept organ for the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam and a new organ for the Doopsgezinde Kerk in Haarlem, and restored instruments of the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam and the Hooglandse Kerk in Leiden.

The workshop operated as Jürgen Ahrend Orgelbau from 1972. Ahrend was also commissioned to restore the organs and their tuning for the Arp Schnitger organs in the Martinikerk in Groningen (including the main organ in the west gallery), the organ of St. Jacobi in Hamburg and organ of St. Ludgeri in Norden. In Hamburg, the organ pipes had been removed from the organ case for safety in 1942. The church was destroyed by bombing. In the restored church, Ahrend used the historic pipes in a new case to revive the sound he had in mind.

Ahrend used several historic building techniques in his restoration work. He devoted about half of the workshop's time to restoration. He restored internationally, such as the organ of Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød'', released in 2009.

Since 2005 his son Hendrik Ahrend has run the workshop. Jürgen Ahrend became involved in the organ festival Orgelfrühling in Krummhörn from its beginning. The 2020 edition was dedicated to him to honour his 90th birthday, but it could not be held until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ahrend died in Leer, Lower Saxony, on 1 August 2024, at the age of 94.Zum Tod von Orgelbaumeister Jürgen Ahrend

Awards

* 1962, Staatspreis für Kunsthandwerk Niedersachsen (State Prize for Craftsmanship in Lower Saxony)
* 1986, Lower Saxony State Prize for culture
* 2000, Honorary doctorate of law from the Monash University, Victoria, Australia
* 2007, The Buxtehude Prize from the city of Lübeck.

Works

:Roman number = number of manuals
:Arabian number = number of stops
:P = independent pedal
:p = pull down pedal
:R = restoration
:Rc = reconstruction
:NB = new built

Ahrend & Brunzema (1954–1971)

Jürgen Ahrend (1972–2004)

Hendrik Ahrend (from 2005)

References

Cited sources

*
*
*
*
*
*

Further reading

* ''25 Jahre Orgelbau Jürgen Ahrend 1954–1979''. Leer-Loga 1979.
* ''Fiori gratulatorii Jürgen Ahrend – Organopoeius. Zum 50jährigen Bestehen der Orgelwerkstatt in Leer und Loga dagli amici e ammiratori''. Ed. Peter Golon and Harald Vogel. CSW Druckservice, Grasberg 2004.
* Pape, Uwe: ''Jürgen Ahrend and Gerhard Brunzema''. In: ''Organ Yearbook''. No. 3, 1972, p. 24–35.
*

External links

*

Ahrend, Jürgen
Bayerischer Musiker Lexicon Online

Jürgen Ahrend, facteur d'orgues de génie
(in French) orgues-et-vitraux.ch
* Organ index
Ahrend, Jürgen
(in German) organindex.de
*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahrend, Jurgen
1930 births
2024 deaths
German pipe organ builders
Musicians from Göttingen
Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Germany