Joe Dzeda, on the other hand, was born in San Francisco, CA to Hattie and Joseph J. Dzeda, who was in the United States Navy at the time. Following the senior Joseph’s military service, the family returned to the Cleveland, Ohio area where Joe grew up. An early lover of music and technology, upon graduation from Kent State University he moved to Hartford in 1968 to work in the console shop of Austin Organs, Inc. Shortly after, he met Aubrey Thompson-Allen, who invited him to become his assistant. Two years later, when Nicholas joined the firm, Joe and Nick became fast friends and later innovative business partners, expanding the profile of this little firm and of their own abilities into one of the leading national forces for the exacting and faithful restoration of some of the country’s finest instruments.
Among these instruments there are many notable examples outside of Yale, largely, though by no means exclusively, built by the Skinner and Aeolian-Skinner organ companies of Boston, Massachusetts. These include instruments at Stambaugh Auditorium, Youngstown, Ohio; the Toledo Museum of Art; First Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, Delaware; Hope College, Holland, Michigan; Grinnell College, Iowa; St. Luke’s Episcopal, Evanston, Illinois; and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Probably the most noble example of these restorations was our own Newberry Memorial Organ in Woolsey Hall which was restored to its original condition just before the pandemic.
These were world class restorations that essentially saved from disestablishment the finest examples of two of the most important organ manufacturers in the world. As a result, generations of organists will understand and grow in a tradition of organ playing that, for a time, might have fallen out of fashion. Their work set a new standard of research and craftsmanship which other organ firms eventually followed. They had an international reputation which led to serving as consultant on the restoration of the Skinner organ in Chateau de Candé in Monts, France.
It is important to note as well that while their work was critically important in breathing new life into these instruments, it took artist-teachers such as Professor Thomas Murray, who was Yale faculty from 1980-2019, and Professor Charles Krigbaum (serving Yale from 1958-1994) to bring these instruments to life through performance and pedagogy. These four men and their associates and students were nearly solely responsible for rescuing an art of music-making from being completely lost. Yale boasts of being home to trail blazers and field changers. These gentlemen are prime examples of such innovation.
Some of this remarkable history has been documented in articles featuring Joe Dzeda’s award-winning scholarship. More of it will be outlined in forthcoming writings from the Institute in which we hope to document some of their world-class leadership.
Please join me in congratulating them on their (not-too!!) upcoming retirements which I am sure will provide them liberty in their schedules for all their many interests and passions. In the meantime, we are working on a succession plan which will involve an international search for a new Yale organ curator who will spend considerable time apprenticing with the incomparable Nicholas Thompson-Allen and Joseph Dzeda. In this way, we hope to maintain the body of knowledge and practice that have provided such strength in our training of the next generation of organists.”
