The first workshop of Orgues Létourneau Ltée, located at         16,355 avenue Savoie, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec.

For more than a quarter century, Orgues Létourneau Limitée has developed a reputation for an ability to work in a variety of styles without compromising our objective of providing instruments of integrity and beauty.  Specifically, organists often praise our pipe organs for the beauty and balance of their sound, their responsive mechanical key actions, and the care and attention to detail that goes into each instrument’s construction.

Orgues Létourneau Limitée was founded in 1979 and remains a sole proprietorship owned by the company’s President and Artistic Director, Fernand Létourneau.  Mr. Létourneau’s previous experience before starting his own company includes working for 14 years for the Canadian organbuilding firm of Casavant Frères Limitée.  Upon his departure from Casavant in 1978, Mr. Létourneau was the recipient of a grant from the Canadian Council of the Arts to study historic pipe organs in Europe where he researched the voicing techniques of the builders Arp Schnitger, Gottfried Silbermann, and François-Henri Clicquot.  In subsequent study trips, Mr. Létourneau has studied voicing techniques from the romantic period of organbuilding, with a special emphasis on the work of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and William Hill.

The company’s first instrument was a small two-manual instrument built for the Conservatoire de Musique in Hull, Québec.  Contracts soon followed for several new instruments in Australia, resulting from Mr. Létourneau’s previous experience and presence “down under”.  Throughout the 1980s, the company built many new instruments in Québec and across Canada, as well as a 10-stop instrument for Christ Church in Vienna, Austria.  The first instrument exported to the United States was displayed at the American Guild of Organists’ National Convention in Boston during the summer of 1990.  The success of this instrument generated a great deal of interest in the company and contracts were soon signed for instruments in Michigan, Texas and Virginia.

During the 1990s, the company experienced remarkable growth as required by the ever-increasing number and size of contracts signed, the majority in the United States.  It soon became clear by the many requests for proposals from prestigious institutions that the company’s reputation was growing on an international scale.  Among the contracts awarded to our company during this period, a 14-stop organ was built for St. Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1991 and a 21-stop mechanical-action instrument was installed at the Damon Wells Chapel at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1995.  These two instruments marked the first time a Canadian pipe organ was exported to both countries.  Other projects during this time included a restoration and enlargement of the 1866 William Hill instrument at St. Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral in Sydney, Australia.

As the 21st century began, over 60 Létourneau organs had been built, with many significant instruments contracted for.  Notably, the year 2000 saw the completion of new pipe organs for St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Sydney, Australia and the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at H.M. Tower of London in England.  The company has also experience growth in the concert hall venue, with the completion of a 57-stop instrument for the Legacy Hall at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Georgia in January 2002 and a 96-stop pipe organ for the Francis Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton, Alberta in September 2002.

Our third major instrument for the United Kingdom – a three-manual tracker organ of 37 ranks – was completed during the summer of 2004 in the Chapel at Selwyn College, Cambridge University, England.  By March of 2006, the new organ for the Episcopal Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, Texas had been completed and is the company’s new magnum opus.  Among this 144-rank instrument’s unique features are two matching five-manual consoles, a high pressure Fanfare division, a Bombarde Ravelement stop in the Pedal that extends three pipes into the 64’ range and a 22-rank Orchestral String division.