JAV Recordings was founded to preserve the sound of America’s most precious organs. Marcia van Oyen talks to the man Selling behind the idea, Joe Vitacco Mr Skinner

oe Vitacco is a remarkably dedicated salesman Combining his entrepreneurial skills with sheer ‘Jfor the organ, at least for the kind of organs enthusiasm, Vitacco founded JAV Recordings, Inc, he likes best,’ says Craig Whitney, an editor for the based in Brooklyn, New York. It has become a New York Times and author of the recent book All highly respected label. His goal is to preserve the the Stops [reviewed in the July/August issue, p.87]. sounds of the pipe organs he most admires, He adds, ‘Joe’s great quality is as a salesman. He expertly recorded and lavishly illustrated with knows how to rope people into his projects.’ photos and historical documentation. Vitacco Vitacco’s enthusiasm for pipe organs is infectious. launched his enterprise with panache at the When he talks about Skinner organs in particular, American Guild of ’ (AGO) centennial his love for the instruments is obvious. His speech convention in in 1996. He collab- above Joe Vitacco at the 1931 becomes quicker and louder, the energy behind the orated with Justin Bischof to produce Great Organs Skinner console (Op.820) at Holy Rosary Cathedral, Toledo, Ohio words increases, and his vocabulary is peppered of New York, a four-disc recording featuring 23 Photo Paul Monachino with superlatives such as ‘drop-dead gorgeous’. organs in the city. He sold nearly 3,000 copies of the

18 box set to convention attendees. Building on that Seventies people were throwing out Skinner organs success, Vitacco embarked on a mission to create a or radically changing them, trying to add baroque series of documentary recordings of organs built by elements to romantic organs.’ Some Skinner organs the Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner companies under have suffered a different fate, such as the the leadership of Ernest M Skinner and G Donald instrument at St Mark’s Episcopal Church in Harrison. These are instruments he considers to be Philadelphia which was on the first six discs the best electro-pneumatic pipe organs built during recorded for the Skinner series. That organ now the 20th century. sports the addition of many digital voices. Prior to attending the 1990 AGO convention in Motivated by urgency, Vitacco says ‘I decided to Boston, Vitacco had had little experience playing preserve Skinner organs on recordings because they fine instruments and relied on hearing recordings. were becoming an endangered species. People are His convention experience was an awakening. As he making well-intentioned improvements to Mr recalls, ‘I heard Nelson Barden’s Skinner player Skinner’s instruments, which they should not be organs and the big Aeolian player organ. He put doing. The clock was ticking.’ The sweet sounds of on a wonderful show; I went back every night. There Skinner organs had been percolating in his audio below 1925 Skinner (Op.475) at Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian was a real difference in the sound of these organs memory since the Boston AGO convention, and he Church, Detroit, Michigan from the sound of those I had heard around was ready to take action. Photo Steve Constable/Idea Design Technique Inc Brooklyn – tubby old romantic organs. I couldn’t hear counterpoint. I figured romantic organs from that time period were bad until I met Nelson Barden. I heard the Skinner organ at Boston University and was entranced by it. I could hear inner voices, the sound wasn’t opaque. The diapasons sounded like beautiful violins full of energy and richness.’ While in Boston, Vitacco met Jonathan Ambrosino, whose recently published history of the Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner companies had ignited his interest. He learned that Ambrosino had received a grant to document Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner pipe organs in the , yet Vitacco was surprised to discover that no recording was planned. Having long admired Thomas Murray’s recordings of the Skinner organ at Woolsey Hall, , Vitacco was thrilled when Ambrosino introduced him to Murray. Shortly after that, he visited Woolsey Hall. ‘When I went to Yale and heard Woolsey Hall, I couldn’t believe it. I wish I had attended Yale! My heart is in Woolsey Hall.’ Vitacco approached Murray about making a recording at Woolsey, but Murray wasn’t ready to commit. He asked Vitacco to talk to him again when he had had more experience, a request Vitacco didn’t forget. In 2001, JAV Recordings released a two-disc set of Murray playing E M Skinner’s Op.722 at Woolsey Hall. Recording that organ was a dream come true for Vitacco: ‘It is like no other instrument I have ever heard. It is massive but has tons of quiet colours. It can whisper or make absolute thunder. It shakes the building.’ As Vitacco became more familiar with the world of Skinner organs, he learnt that many of the instruments were in peril. He recounts, ‘What disturbed me was that in the Fifties, Sixties and

19 Vitacco’s venture was aided by several key benefactors. Thomas Coleman, a Notre Dame alumnus and Vitacco’s client, became aware of his recording ambitions and wanted him to succeed, so he provided financial backing. Bob Schopp, president of the pipe-making firm A R Schopp’s Sons, became an investment client after Vitacco repeatedly solicited him. Schopp has since provided major financial support for the Skinner series. Vitacco’s parents graciously allowed him to move in with them to save housing costs, giving him free reign to turn their home into a warehouse, shipping facility and office space. Financial resources in place, Vitacco got to work on an ambitious project: a 16-volume series featuring Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner organs entitled Great Organbuilders of America: A Retrospective. His selection of recording venues was guided by Jonathan Ambrosino, Joe Dzeda and Nick Thompson-Allen. ‘Initially, Jonathan Ambrosino directed me to instruments. I befriended Joe Dzeda and Nick Thompson-Allen of the Thompson-Allen Company, curators of the organs at Yale University. Joe Dzeda’s company is very strict in the restoration of organs. They will not make changes or improvements. They restore organs to original condition. I grew to respect their work, and I think they’ve developed respect for me. Joe and Nick suggested instruments and I would try to make arrangements to record them.’ Vitacco seeks to record unaltered instruments, though he has made exceptions if Skinner made the alterations, as was the case with the Church of the

‘if people hear something that’s familiar played on another instrument, it will catch their interest… then maybe they will want to listen to Sweelinck eventually’

Vitacco had been working as a stockbroker on Advent in Boston. ‘Right now, I wouldn’t record an Wall Street since graduating with a business major organ with anything but the most minor additions, from the University of Notre Dame in 1990. Having and then I wouldn’t allow them to be used.’ When squirrelled away savings to fund his ambitions, Vitacco recorded Erik Suter playing Aeolian- he quit his Wall Street job in April 1998 in order to Skinner’s Op.1235 in Forest Park, Illinois, he did devote himself full-time to pursuing his dream. not allow Suter to use the Rückpositiv division His Wall Street colleagues didn’t understand this added decades later by another builder. decision. ‘Everyone thought I was crazy, which goes Thomas Murray recommended that Vitacco to show the perception the general public has of the record the 1931 E M Skinner at Holy Rosary organ world,’ Vitacco recalls. ‘A lot of people said Cathedral in Toledo, Ohio, an organ in pristine “Oh, are you going to be making Muzak for funeral condition. He made not one recording but three, homes?” I got very annoyed that people had that one each featuring Todd Wilson, Ken Cowan and above 1921 Skinner (Op.327) at the Parish Church of Saint Luke, perception. Their ignorance further fuelled my Stuart Forster. Forster’s recording is one of JAV’s Evanston, Illinois Photo Bill Burlingham passion to get Skinner instruments recorded.’ best-selling discs, a fact Vitacco attributes to the

20 inclusion of Forster’s transcription of Dvorak’s New excellent transcription of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Contact details World Symphony. ‘If people hear something that’s by Dukas and the berceuse and final from The JAV Recordings familiar played on another instrument, it will catch Firebird by Stravinsky. Thomas Murray performed [email protected] their interest. If you use that as a hook to get people a partial disc of selections as well. Vitacco is amazed www.pipeorgancds.com in, then maybe they will want to listen to Sweelinck by the capabilities of the 13-rank Elm Court organ, and Buxtehude eventually. That music is so far reporting that it sounds as if it has four times that UK distributor removed from what the average person on the street many ranks given its colourful resources. Allegro Music, Birmingham, UK is used to hearing that they don’t know how to When asked what he has accomplished, Vitacco’s tel +44 (0)121 643 7553 comprehend it. To someone who’s not already answer is simple: ‘I hope I have done something to [email protected] initiated to the pipe organ, it’s like listening to a preserve Mr Skinner’s instruments and convinced www.allegro.co.uk foreign language. I’m trying desperately to get more people to respect them.’ The salesman in him people interested in the pipe organ.’ emerges as he continues ‘Let’s convince people below the Solo division at Holy One of the ways Vitacco strives to promote the who aren’t members of the AGO or OHS [Organ Rosary Cathedral (l to r: Tuba pipe organ is through the promotion of young Historical Society] that the pipe organ is as Mirabilis, French Horn, Corno di Bassetto, English Horn, artists. He hopes that by recording emerging artists interesting and as exciting as Monday night football Orchestral Flute 4) he is helping to launch their performing careers. or the World Series.’ ■ Photo Nick Thompson-Allen ‘The organists who record for me come from references from people such as Tom Murray, or they are well-known artists such as Jim Christie and Todd Wilson. I’m very choosy about who I invite. The people I do invite are really fantastic. I take good musicians who can communicate and get them out there so they can sell people on the pipe organ. The most important thing I can do is to promote the pipe organ.’ The final disc of the 16-part Skinner series was recorded during summer 2002, but Vitacco doesn’t plan to end the project just yet. He quips ‘The series will probably go on until I decide I need to take care of myself instead of taking care of Mr Skinner’s organs.’ Vitacco has returned to the corporate world, working 55-hour weeks for a recruiting firm, but his remaining waking hours are dedicated to recording endeavours. A series of recordings at the National Cathedral in Washington DC is underway, three discs recorded at St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois, are in the pipeline, and he has plans to make the first recording of . Vitacco is particularly excited about the upcoming release of a multi-disc recording of the Skinner player organ at Elm Court, a sumptuous private residence in Butler, Pennsylvania. Vitacco describes it as his ‘vision of heaven: an incredibly opulent house with a beautiful pipe organ.’ The organ is in mint condition, restored by Joe Dzeda and Nick Thompson-Allen, who secured permission for Vitacco to record it. The organ is one of approxi- mately seven Aeolian or Skinner player organs still in working condition. One disc has already been made by JAV at Elm Court featuring performers Peter Stoltzfus and Ken Cowan as well as player rolls from the house collection. The new release will feature music from more player rolls loaned by collectors, including an

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