tuning
restoration
repair
buschbeck organbuilding
Tampa, Florida
Greifswald Jehmlich organ
Güstrow Lütkemüller organ
Berlin Schauspielhaus Jehmlich
Friedemann Buschbeck was trained as an organbuilder in Germany, and has had extensive experience in Germany and the United States. He served a three year apprenticeship in East Germany at the Schule für Orgelbau at Joachimstal. This training also involved work experience in the employ of Jehmlich Orgelbau in his home town of Dresden over a period of six years. He participated in the construction, as well as the restoration of small and large instruments, most importantly of the new concert organ in the Schauspielhaus Berlin, the 19th century romantic Lütkemüller organ in the Cathedral of Güstrow and of the new Jehmlich organ in the historic case from Carl August Buchholz t Greifswald. Having had experience in restoring tracker action instruments, he had the privilege of working for several years for the Orgelwerkstatt of Kristian Wegscheider in Dresden, a leading company for organ restorations in Germany.
Baroque organs in Saxony from Gottfried Silbermann or in Thuringia from Gottfried Heinrich Trost of are very important instruments for organ builders because these organs were built, played and often inspected by Johann Sebastian Bach himself. Especially the Saxon baroque tradition has still today an important influence on American organ building.
Friedemann moved to the US in 1994, and established his own workshop in Tampa, Florida. Here he has had the opportunity of working for two American organ-building firms, Susan Tattersall of Rhinbeck, New York, and Taylor and Boody of Staunton Virginia.
He has restored several 19th century historic tracker organs in the countryside of Texas. These some times forgotten instruments where often built in organ factories from Barkhuff, Hinners or other builders. These companies built highly developed mechanical organs with an well thought design that still works today, but only a few survived. The more important it is to preserve these instruments today. He offers regular tuning work in Florida and Texas.
In 2021 Friedemann was asked to come to Jamaica to work on several old English tracker organs. These organs from Walker or Rutt where built from the finest Mahogany wood and only with brass screws. It is important to repair them and not improve them with electric action or other modern inventions. Often enough the repair they need is the improvement made 20 years ago..