During his time studying in
the United States, Szymon Januszkiewicz has worked with us for several periods
of time. Each encouter was marked by great enthusiasm and desire to learn more
about organbuilding. He has demonstrated a natural aptitude to learn and to
apply his learning into practical application very quickly. His disposition has
always been one of "can do", and he is a cheerful and supportive
person to work alongside. In short, I am sorry that he cannot stay in the
United States and continue to work with us.
His first period of work
with us was during the summer of 2001. During this time he worked on restoring
a large set of 16' wooden pipes, assisted in moving a moderate sized organ in
and out of a church which was undergoing construction, assisted with several
tuning and maintenance jobs, made helper pneumatics for an organ, and made lead
reed boots for our organ in Lausanne.
In January 2003, Szymon
spent two weeks assisting us with the set up of our organ in Lausanne,
Switzerland. His strong body and willingness to work hard was a real asset to
us as we carried and lifted many heavy parts and assembled them in a high
gallery of the Cathedral of Lausanne.
We had invited Szymon to
work with us for several months after his graduation from UNT in 2004, but at
the last moment we suggested that he would be of greatest service to us by
working with our colleague, John Schreiner, who was building an organ with us
as a joint project. Mr. Schreiner is a former employee of Fisk and builds
instruments using our basic same procedures. This is a second instrument that
we have constructed as a joint project. Mr. Schreiner was a bit behind schedule
with the construction of this organ because of ahbing to move his workshop, so
we took the opportunity to have Szymon work with him ni Schenectady rather than
in our workshop in Gloucester. That time was quite succesful and Szymon was
instrumental in regaining the lost time.
Szymon spent his last month
in the United States, January 2005 working in our pipeshop, and as in
everything else he undertakes, he has learned very quickly and produced
excellent work.