MILWAUKEE — A young Milwaukee man is tuning the notes of the past to keep them ringing for decades to come.
“I like preserving things that are old. I like hearing things that are - hearing music that's 200 years old.”
An Organ Builder Since Birth
John Miller, 29, owns John Miller Mechanical Organ and Clock Works. He is classically trained in organ building. He specializes in refurbishing and repairing pipe organs, street organs, tower clocks, cuckoo clocks made before 1920, and mechanical music boxes. It's not common for someone so young to be fascinated by these old traditions, but for Miller, it's something he has always been fascinated with.
"I've been interested in pipe organs basically since I was born," he said.
Miller works out of his shop in West Allis, but he's often on the road. His workshop is relatively small for massive pipe organs. So he is normally working on-site. Plus, he maintains 70 organs across Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. The nature of the job requires him to be on the move.
"It used to be that you would have organ builders in every region of the state. And organ builders have just become so few that now the few of us around have to do a lot of traveling," he said.
Organ Building Apprenticeship
Becoming a certified organ builder isn't easy. For an aspiring mechanic, finding cars to work on is simple. Finding an organ to tinker with is much more difficult. That's why he traveled across the Atlantic to get the right training. In August 2015, he dropped out of college, left his friends, and said goodbye to his family to go to Germany and study pipe organ building for three and a half years.
"As far as I know, there are three organ-building schools in the world. One is in France, one is in Germany, and one is in Austria," he said.
He worked and studied in Stuggart and Cologne to get both the textbook knowledge of what he is doing and the hands-on training necessary to work with organs. Miller received his journeyman certificate in Pipe Organ Building from the Industrie-und Handelskammer Bonn.
"A lot of this is taking designs from 200 years ago, maybe improving on it, but sometimes they found the best solution 200 years ago, and so you need to know how that was done," Miller said about his education in Germany.
He returned to Milwaukee in 2019. Now at 29 years old, business is booming. Since many of the organ builders in Wisconsin are nearing retirement, he is getting more work inquiries. It's not easy to keep up with it, but he feels honored to be taking over the helm.
Innovation
As a newcomer to the industry, he is also bringing fresh ideas.
Crafting parts for an organ is expensive and laborious. To save time and money, Miller invested in a 3-D printer. It allows him to make the pieces he needs in less time and at a fraction of the cost. Afterward, he will cast the part in bronze.
However, he does have reservations. As a self-admitted purist, he isn't sure inserting plastics is the best thing to honor these organs.
"Cause I'm very hesitant to even use 3-D printing and modern materials in this. We’ve seen a lot of damage get done with modern plastic glues."
Right now he is in the experimenting stage as he figures out the best application of the printer.
Not Just an Organ Builder
Beyond organ building, he also plays the organ. He regularly plays at his church, St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. You may also recognize him as the "Organ Guy" who plays the street organ at the South Shore Farmer's Market in Milwaukee every weekend during the summer. It's a much smaller portable organ that he plays by turning a lever in a circle.
"I'm okay with being The Organ Guy. I'm Organ Guy John."
Whether he is playing a massive church organ, a street organ, or refurbishing an old organ Miller is keeping the notes of the past alive for generations to come.
"Hopefully, the instruments I'm building also last five generations from now. That would be awesome if my great-grandchildren are maintaining the instruments that I'm building now."
