Markus Organs
2020

Kevin Vogt on January 20th, 2024:
Currently installed in a studio much smaller than its original location in the Dana College chapel, the organ was temporarily enclosed by Halbert Gober in March 2021 by placing painted, removable fiberboard panels behind the facade pipes. To make room for these panels, Gober added a new removable toeboard extension to for the facade, moving the facade pipes forward a couple of inches. He revoiced the facade pipes to make them softer in order to better balance the enclosed interior pipes. All of these measures can be reversed if the organ is ever relocated to a larger space.

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Jim Stettner on June 24th, 2020:
Updated via email from Kevin Vogt on June 24, 2020, -- *"The organ was built new 1984 for Dana College in Blair, NE. by Jan van Daalen of Minneapolis. As I understand it, Van Daalen had a business interest in Pels & van Leeuwen from around 1970 or so when he and Rochus van Rumpt (the grandfather of the Rochus van Rumpt in charge of the current iteration of the company) resurrected the old Pels firm. The organ was really built by Pels & van Leeuwen (as their Opus 885) but under the name of Jan van Daalen who contracted the organ in the States. < snip > *The organ was relocated to St. Michael the Archangel in Leawood, KS, on June 16-17, 2020, by Mark Pichowicz of Markus Organs, Winchester, Virginia, but nothing was done to the organ other than move it, and it still bears the Jan van Daalen name plate."*