About Us

D.C. Schroth Organ Builders, LLC

In Pursuit of Excellence In Our Trade

Our mission is to help to improve and maintain reliability and stability of our clients’ pipe organs through reliable and conscientious service and maintenance.

We strive to listen to the needs of our clients, working with them to provide services that make sense in their individual situation. The organ-building world is truly a “cottage industry,” and through a rapport based relationship, we work together with our clients to make sure their instrument gets the best possible service.

We believe there is more to this than just being an “organ tuner.” We hold ourselves to high standards, knowing that the philosophy of exacting our trade to these standards not only produces the best quality instruments, but it provides our clients with the best value overall.

We understand the nuances and idiosyncrasies of pipe organs, and we want all our customers to feel that we’ve “got their back”, when they need us.

We believe that all this means nothing if we, ourselves, are not reliable, and we therefore strive to provide excellent, reliable, professional service when required, to arrive on-time, and to complete projects in a timely manner.

As a business advertising ourselves as “conscientious”, we also feel we have a commitment to the craftsmen who have devoted their lives to this honorable trade. Therefore, we are committed to paying respectable, living wages to all in our employ.

If these are things you would like to see in your organ service company, please contact us to set up an appointment.

Dramatis Personae

David Schroth Jr., Owner

Like many fans of the pipe organ, David’s journey began at a very young age, initially inspired by his grandfather who was an organ technician in New England. After studying George Ashdown Audsley’s landmark tome The Art of Organ Building while still only a senior in high school, David entered into an apprenticeship with German organ builder Stefan Maier. Here, he assisted in servicing and rebuilding dozens of the various historic instruments that dot the New England countryside, as well as some of the most well-known modern tracker instruments in the New England area.

This experience was sufficient to procure a position at the firm of Richards, Fowkes, & Co. in Ooltewah, TN, where he assisted in the construction and erection of their Opus 16, Duke Divinity School, and Opus 17, Church of the Transfiguration, Dallas, TX.

David and his family moved to Louisville in 2009. David, working with local builders, shifted focus of his training to gain experience working with electro-pneumatic and all-electric action pipe organs, also coming to be well versed in installation and maintenance of solid-state relay systems. He also became well-versed working with 3D Cad, becoming proficient in windchest and case design. In July 2015, David set out to found D. C. Schroth Organ Builders, and the rest, as they say, is history!

David is a member of the American Institute of Organbuilders, The American Guild of Organists (National and Local Chapters), the Organ Historical Society, and the American Theater Organ Society (National and Local Chapters).

David Schroth, Jr. currently resides just outside the Louisville Metro in rural Shepherdsville, KY, with his wife and children.

Seth Daily

Seth has loved pipe organs since the 5th grade and has primarily focused on studying the engineering and history of organs. This fascination with how the instrument plays and sounds, and his desire to work inside organs and learn more about them, led to him follow his dream by beginning an apprenticeship with D. C. Schroth Organ Builders in September, 2021. He says he does not see his passion for the organ dying out any time soon!

Jonathan Oblander, Service Manager

A native of Louisville, Jonathan had the seeds of a lifelong love of the organ planted at an early age. His mother and father, both church musicians, encouraged his passions by taking him to concerts and supporting his involvement as an instrumentalist and chorister. At the age of 13, he began formal organ studies and gave his first solo recital two years later. Jonathan has degrees in organ from Valparaiso University and The Juilliard School. He has had a thirty-year career as both a concert and church musician, and is currently organist at Broadway Baptist in Louisville.

His career in organbuilding began in 2006 as an apprentice with Berghaus Pipe Organ Builders of Chicago. Subsequently he worked in several capacities there, including as Tonal Director for ten years. Later, Jonathan traveled abroad and was employed for two years as a voicer for the Danish firm Frobenius & Sønner, primarily working on low-pressure, mechanical action instruments. Jonathan appreciates the wide variety of tonal and construction styles that the organ has to offer, and is at home with many challenges encountered in the realization of an organ project.

Chris Siemer

After years of work restoring historic stained glass in Louisville, Chris joined our crew, bringing his valuable knowledge of fine woodworking with him. Outside work, Chris enjoys studying history and spending time with his wife and children.

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Randall Ruppert, Project Manager

Randall has been an essential part of the Louisville organ-building community for over two decades. His musical interests led him first to apprentice for Steiner-Reck, then moving to Miller Pipe Organs, where he worked for over a decade. He spent another decade servicing organs under his own name, during that time frequently collaborating with other Louisville builders. He joined with D. C. Schroth Organ Builders in 2021 as project manager, and is a critical part of our daily operations.

Alexander Smith

Alexander was interested in music from a young age, starting out being insistent upon learning Cello at age five, eventually becoming interested in the pipe organ, studying Audley’s The Art of Organ Building while in middle school. After perusing an associate’s degree in robotics after high school, he apprenticed with the Michigan firm of Fowler-Hebert, quickly developing a solid grasp especially of tonal design and tuning theory. He started with D. C Schroth Organ Builders in September, 2021.

.Carmen Wooldridge

Carmen Wooldridge

Carmen joined us in 2022, following a long career as Certified Nursing Assistant. Her care for others and attention to detail have been a great asset to our shop as she learns the organ-building trade. Outside the shop, she is a devoted wife and mother, and enjoys the outdoors, especially camping, hiking, and deep-sea fishing.