Jürgen Ahrend, 94, born April 28, 1930, in Göttingen, Germany, died August 1. He built new instruments and restored historic organs by Arp Schnitger and others.
From 1946 until 1948 he apprenticed in organbuilding with Paul Ott, after which term he began employment with the firm. From 1954 until 1972 he was in partnership with Gerhard Brunzema in Leer-Loga, Germany, during which time they built more than fifty new organs and restored almost twenty. In 1972 Brunzema went to work for Casavant Frères, Limitée, in Canada, whereupon Ahrend continued work in his own company, Jürgen Ahrend Orgelbau. Since 2005 his son Hendrik Ahrend has run the firm.
Among the awards Ahrend received was an honorary doctorate from Monash University, Victoria, Australia, and the Buxtehude Prize from the City of Lübeck, Germany. Among Ahrend’s new instruments is the three-manual organ in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, France, and the four-manual organ for the University of Oregon, Eugene. The list of restored instruments includes the Schnitger organs of the Martinikerk in Groningen, the Netherlands; the Ludgeri-Kirche of Norden, Germany; and Ss. Cosmae et Damiani, Stade, Germany.
Photo credit: Jürgen Ahrend (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)
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