Létourneau Organs

Fernand Létourneau began as an apprentice voicer at Casavant Frères in February 1965 and, by the firm’s own account, rose to chief tonal finisher there by the mid-1970s. He founded his own company in January 1979; its first instrument was a six-stop practice organ built in the family home in Sainte-Rosalie, just outside Saint-Hyacinthe. (James B. Hartman’s 2003 history in The Diapason has the venture beginning in 1978, with incorporation in 1979; the two accounts are compatible.) The workshop is at 16355 avenue Savoie, Saint-Hyacinthe.

You will meet the firm under several names: Létourneau Organs Inc. on its contact page, Orgues Létourneau in its own publications, Létourneau Pipe Organs in the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America directory, and Orgues Létourneau Ltée in the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec and the Musique Orgue Québec database. All refer to the same company at the same Savoie address.

Casavant Frères and Orgues Létourneau are separate companies that happen to share a city. Casavant was founded in October 1879 and works from 900 Girouard Est; Létourneau was founded a century later, in January 1979, and works from avenue Savoie. Neither firm claims any corporate relationship with the other. The only connection is personal: Fernand Létourneau spent about fourteen years at Casavant before starting his own firm, and that career history is not a succession, spin-off or licence.

The practical consequence is that an opus number by itself does not tell you which builder you have. Both firms number from 1. Casavant’s series runs from opus 1 in 1880 past opus 3900; Létourneau’s runs from Opus 1 in 1979 to Opus 143 on its published list as of September 2026. “Opus 63” could be either. Check the nameplate, the contract or the builder’s own list before assuming.

Fernand Létourneau was founder, president, owner and artistic director from 1979. The Diapason reported in November 2019 that Dr. Dudley Oakes became President and Owner effective 5 November 2019, and in December 2022 that Andrew Forrest had been appointed President, with Dr. Oakes remaining owner. Dr. Oakes died on 26 April 2023.

As of September 2026 the firm’s Team page names J. Thomas Mitts as Owner, Andrew Forrest as President and Artistic Director, Fernand Létourneau as President Emeritus, and Dr. Oakes, in memoriam, as former Owner. The firm has not published when or how ownership passed to Mr. Mitts; its History page ends with Dr. Oakes’s death, and its news feed carries nothing later. If the identity of the owner matters to a contract or a grant application, confirm it with the firm directly.

The firm’s website carries four public lists: an Opus List, a Rebuilds and Restorations List, a Discography and an Organs Map. None gives a revision date. The first two are the ones that identify an instrument.

An Opus List row gives the opus number, client, location, ranks, manuals and action type. It gives no year: the opus number is a sequence, not a date. A Rebuilds and Restorations row gives the year the work was completed, the original builder, the year the organ was originally built, the client, location, ranks and action, and no opus number.

The firm also describes four services, each with its own page: organ building, restoration, relocation and maintenance. Note that the firm’s own terminology treats relocation as a separate service but does not separate restoration from reconstruction or rebuilding, so the service labels alone do not establish the extent of work on a particular instrument. Consult the project record; the rebuilds guide explains how to investigate it.

Look at the shape of the record you have.

If it carries a Létourneau opus number, the instrument is a new Létourneau organ and the question becomes how to read the row: why the number does not date the instrument, what the published action label does and does not tell you, why the builder’s name does not imply mechanical action (Létourneau builds electric-slider and electro-pneumatic instruments as well as tracker organs), and how to treat the rank count. Reading Létourneau Opus and Action Records covers all of that.

If it names another builder as the original and gives a “restored in” year, the organ was built by someone else and Létourneau did later work on it. The row alone does not describe how much was retained or replaced. Credit the original builder and identify Létourneau’s later work according to the project evidence. A Casavant, Möller or Hill nameplate does not rule out later Létourneau work that changed how the instrument plays. Identifying Létourneau Rebuilds of Other Builders’ Organs explains how to establish which builder is responsible for what.

Occasionally one venue appears on both sides. At the Cathédrale de l’Assomption in Trois-Rivières, Létourneau’s Opus List carries a new-instrument row, Opus 35; the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec records a Casavant organ there restored by Létourneau in 1991; and Musique Orgue Québec describes a Létourneau instrument installed in 1992 with most of its pipes new. None of the three sources says whether it is describing the same instrument as the others. When your records disagree like this, treat it as a rebuilds question and follow the rebuilds guide.

Yes. In an October 2023 report on Quebec organ building in Le Verbe, Andrew Forrest said the firm had work booked through 2028, largely for American clients. The Diapason’s June 2026 cover feature covered Létourneau’s Opus 138 at Saint Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, installed during 2025 with onsite voicing in early 2026. The firm’s own news feed is out of date, with no dated item since 2023, but its Opus List continues to grow and independent dated reports show it building and installing organs.