Gabriel Kney

Gabriel Kney (born 1929-11-21) is a renowned Canadian builder of pipe organs based in London, Ontario.

Kney was born in Speyer-am-Rhein, Germany. At the age of 15, he apprenticed to Paul Sattel of Speyer to become an organ builder, and concurrently studied organ and composition with Erhard Quack and Ludwig Doerrat at the Bishop’s Institute for Church Music in Speyer.In 1951, he moved to Canada to work as a voicer with the Keates Organ Co. [cite web
url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001863
title=Kney, Gabriel
last=Bouchard|first=Antoine|coauthors=Graham, Melva
work=Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
accessdate=2008-04-19] [cite web
url=http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/organ/churches.htm
title=Organs in Ames Churches
publisher=Ames Historical Society
accessdate=2008-04-20]

In 1955 he formed with John Bright the Kney and Bright Organ Co to build tracker organs. Blanton (1957) described their first instrument as "a handsome little organ with mechanical action, slider chests, 1-3/4" pressure". [cite book
last=Blanton|first=Joseph E.
title=The organ in church design
publisher=Venture Press|location=Albany Tx|date=1957|pages=431] They were at the vanguard of the tracker organ revival in Canada, so much so thatthey were then to build 30 electro-pneumatic organs before customers caught on and started ordering instruments with mechanical action. In the early 1960s, they rebuilt the organs of
Aeolian Hall in Londonand St Michael's Cathedral in Toronto.

In 1967, Kney formed Gabriel Kney Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., and by 1990 he and his seven employees had built more than 110 organs, mostly for customers in the Great Lakes region.Some of the best examples of this company's designs are the organs of
Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Ontario [cite web
url=http://rth-mh.com/aboutRTH/gabrielKney.cfm
title=Gabriel Kney Pipe Organ, Opus 95, 1981
last=Komisaruk|first=Kevin|date=2005
publisher=The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall
accessdate=2008-04-19] , Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City [cite web
url=http://www.ghtc-kc.org/music/organ.html
title=About the Cathedral's organ
publisher=Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
accessdate=2008-04-19] , Christ Church Parish in Pensacola, Florida [cite web
url=http://www.pensacola-ago.org/organs/ccpns.html
title=Christ Church (Episcopal)
publisher=American Guild of Organists - Pensacola Chapter
accessdate=2008-04-20] and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota [cite web
url=http://www.stthomas.edu/music/organs/kney/kney_gallery.html
title=Gabriel Kney · Opus 105
publisher=University of St. Thomas
accessdate=2008-04-19] [cite web
url=http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/gallery/us_midwest/minnesota/stpaul_stthomaskney.shtml
title=1987 Kney organ at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
publisher=American Public Media|accessdate=2008-04-19] .

References

External links

* [http://www.gabrielkney.com/ Gabriel Kney, Pipe Organ Builder]