Mark C Austin
Pipe Products Manager, Rodgers® Instruments LLC

I grew up in Portland Maine, went to college there, and taught public school music while working as assistant choirmaster at St. Luke's Episcopal Cathedral. I went on to graduate work at New England Conservatory in Boston where I held church positions as well as working as Director of Choral Music at Providence College. In 1990 I moved to San Francisco, working as Choirmaster for Holy Innocents Episcopal Church where I founded the Schola Cantorum. I also began my training in organbuilding with Rosales Organbuilders in LA. I went on to form my own company, eventually becoming curator of organs for Stanford Univeristy and the University of California. In 2001, I moved to Palm Springs, worked as Assistant Choirmaster at St Margarets Episcopal Church, and began work with various southwestern US Rodgers® dealers designing new organs and interfacing existing instruments with Rodgers® consoles. Imoved to Portland, OR in March and remain active in church music here in addition to my responsibilites at Rodgers®.

What is your favorite activity outside of work?

Working out - I spend time daily at the gym, and have done long- distance (500+ mile) bicycle rides for fun and for charity.

What brought you into your current line of work?

While working as a church choirmaster, the small unit organ we had failed beyond repair. The church had no money to speak of, so we wound up restoring an pipe organ from 1890 - the same year the church was built. The organ had been stored in a barn, and was a jigsaw puzzule of pieces. We did this all with volunteer labor. This process introduced me to Manuel Rosales and John DeCamp. I eventually worked for them part time, then took organbuidling on as a fulltime profession after more formal training with Rosales.

What is your primary responsibility at Rodgers®?

My job is varied. I am responsible for the design of new pipe instruments including pipe layout & casework, working closely with Pinchi. I make recommendations for console interfacing with existing organs, and write the software that controls the interface between the two. I work on voicing and fine-tuning the organs so that the digital and pipe voices are completely seemless. I also run seminars from both a tonal and technical aspect on intefacing topics. I am also
involved in product development from the tonal side of things.

Mark Austin

What do you find most likable about working at Rodgers®?

Absolutely incredible people to work with! The good nature of people here and the spirit of cooperation is like no other place I've worked. I also believe that the merger of pipe and digital organbuilding is clearly the future of the organ, and I'm excited about working in an atmosphere that promotes that concept.

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