C. B. Fisk, Inc.

C. B. Fisk, Inc. is a company in Gloucester in the U.S. state of Massachusetts that designs and builds mechanical action pipe organs.

It was founded in Gloucester in 1960 by Charles Brenton Fisk (1925–1983).[1] Fisk had been a nuclear physicist in training, part of his World War II drafted service included work at Los Alamos working on detonators.[1] After graduation from Harvard University with a physics degree, he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In 1950 he pursued graduate physics studies at Stanford University, but switched to organ studies, studying with Herbert Nanney, Putnam Aldrich, Rob Keine, and former Aeolian-Skinner installer John Swinford. He then pursued an apprenticeship with Walter Holtkamp in Cleveland.[1]

C. B. Fisk, Inc's first installation was in 1964 for King's Chapel in Boston, where Daniel Pinkham (who had contemporaneously studied with Aldrich) was organist; it was the first modern (since the advent of pneumatic and electric actions) mechanical tracker organ in the United States. Fisk took inspiration from older European organ designs like those of Silbermann and Cavaillé-Coll.[2]

In its 50 years C. B. Fisk, Inc. has completed over 90 instruments in 23 U.S. states, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea.[3] John Brombaugh, another leading builder of tracker action pipe organs, was an employee from 1966–1967.