About the Letters
| My Father's Letters |
Pipe Organs in Western CanadaThese selected letters form a fraction of sixty years' worth of correspondence, notes, clippings and other materials on pipe organs, their specifications, historical data, and glimpses into the minds of builders, organists and music lovers. It is a story that revolves around one instrument, Casavant Opus 301, the pipe organ that my father rescued from demolition in 1955. I have read these letters hundreds of times and still find them fascinating. It is impossible not to marvel at the mind and heart of a man who devoted so much of his life to one instrument. The effort of dismantling and rebuilding not only once but twice, together with building a new music room each time, is something that speaks to me of a deep, profound love and dedication. Each reading offers further insight and understanding, and as I re-read the Kindersley letters again I was struck by my father's profound loneliness and aloneness as he struggled to maintain his hope and faith in his dream for this pipe organ. In addition to the written material, there are yet-to-be-transcribed reel-to-reel recordings and cassette tapes that span thirty years, some now over fifty years old. One of the reel-to-reel recordings is of Casavant # 301 as she sounded in Grace Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1955, just before the instrument was dismantled and the church demolished. Although the bulk of the material is related to pipe organs, other personal correspondences are included as they serve to expand a sense of the qualities and gifts of the man who I was privileged to know as a father, friend, and mentor. Several correspondents generously donated their collections of letters that they received from my father over the years. Casavant Freres has also given permission to copy the letters that are in their archives, a project for a later date. 2002 About Me:I am the eldest of Stuart and Mary Kolbinson's four daughters. I am an artist who works primarily in glass, although my interests extend to painting, iconography, and music recording, production and engineering. My glass portfolio site is here: Avanti Glass Studio. I also have a fascination with technology, particularly open source applications. This website was built using Joomla, an open-source Content Management System. I have a portfolio of freelance work here: i-freelance-victoria. Like my father, I have a keen interest in history and how small, seemingly unrelated events can change the course of one's life. We used to talk about this a lot; it is a key ingredient in the old Icelandic sagas and indeed once one starts to remember details, dreams, symbols and serendipitous events one can see the threads that have woven themselves into a life's fabric.I have many happy memories of countless hours spent with my father in his music room in Victoria. And I thought I knew him very well, until the day not long after he had passed away, the day I discovered the boxes of letters. It became almost an obsession, to record his life and honour his life work, and even now I am still working on transcribing letters and digitizing the audio files. Recently I received a very welcome and affirmative reply to an inquiry I made regarding having his reel-to-reel recordings digitized, so I am very hopeful that this new effort will come to fruition and the sound of one of Canada's historic instruments in its original setting, will be memorialized. Valla Eiriksson2008Stuart and Daughter Valla, 1998
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