Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat

Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat is a Spanish pipe-organ building and restoration company headquartered in Collbató, in the province of Barcelona. The present firm was founded in 1998 by the organ builder Albert Blancafort, but it stands at the end of a longer organ-building lineage in Collbató that reaches back to 1925. In that year the Abbey of Montserrat commissioned two Italian organ builders to construct a new organ for the abbey church; the two builders established a workshop in Collbató under the name "Organos Nuestra Señora de Montserrat" for that purpose. Between 1926 and 1960 that predecessor firm built and restored roughly twenty-eight instruments. The modern company continues to operate from the same original location in Collbató. The firm works in the classical craft tradition of European organ building, designing, constructing, restoring and maintaining pipe organs. Its output spans instruments for churches, concert halls and other public venues. Among its best-known instruments is the concert organ of the Auditorio de Tenerife, a major Spanish concert hall. Because organ building is a specialized, project-based craft, the company's business is organized around individual commissions rather than mass-produced product lines, and its reputation rests on the quality and scale of the instruments it delivers and on its restoration work on historic organs. As a privately held Spanish company, Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat is not listed on a stock exchange and does not publish the kind of financial reporting expected of public corporations. Its identity is closely tied to its founder, Albert Blancafort, and to the town of Collbató, where the workshop has been based since the 1920s. The firm presents itself internationally through its official website, which is available in English as well as Spanish, reflecting a clientele that extends beyond Catalonia to other parts of Spain and Europe.

The organ-building tradition that Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat continues began in 1925, when the Abbey of Montserrat commissioned two Italian organ builders to build a new organ for the abbey church. To carry out the commission, the two builders established an organ-building firm in Collbató named "Organos Nuestra Señora de Montserrat." Between 1926 and 1960 this predecessor workshop built and restored approximately twenty-eight instruments, establishing Collbató as a center of organ building in Catalonia. The present company, Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat, was founded in 1998 by the organ builder Albert Blancafort, emerging from that longer local tradition. It remains at the original Collbató site associated with the earlier workshop. The firm has continued to build and restore pipe organs, and one of its best-known works is the concert organ in the Auditorio de Tenerife. The company presents itself through an official website available in English, indicating activity and clients beyond its Catalan home region.

• 1998

  Albert Blancafort founds Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat, continuing the Collbató organ-building tradition at the original site.

• 1960

  End of the predecessor workshop's documented period, during which it built and restored about 28 instruments.

• 1926

  Beginning of the predecessor workshop's active period of building and restoration, which runs to 1960.

• 1925

  The Abbey of Montserrat commissions two Italian organ builders to build a new organ for the abbey church; they establish the firm "Organos Nuestra Señora de Montserrat" in Collbató.

Specialist craft organ builder and restorer, heir to a Collbató organ-building tradition dating to 1925.

• Concert organ of the Auditorio de Tenerife

  One of the firm's best-known organ works, installed in the Auditorio de Tenerife.

1. 1BLANCAFORT OM — official websiteorguesblancafort.com
2. 2Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat — Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Blancafort Orgueners de Montserrat — Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org