Putting in all the stops: Cornel Zimmer organ builders craftsmen blend talent and tradition to turn pipe dreams into works of art.

• Author: Martin, Edward

They roar, and the earth trembles. They whisper, and the heavens hear. On the western shore of Lake Norman in the land of stock-car racing and jet skis, Cornel Zimmer creates magnificent boxes of whistles. "That's essentially what they are," he says, laughing. Then, as if J.S. Bach might have overheard, he adds: "Well, there's a little more to it than that."

He and his seven employees at Cornel Zimmer Organ Builders in Denver have made more than 100 instruments played in churches, cathedrals and college chapels across the country. Building them is in the blood of Zimmer, 47, the fourth generation of his family to ply the craft. His great-grandfather began making organs in the 1890s in the Netherlands. His German-born grandfather, drafted into his native country's army in 1940, was sent to the Eastern Front, where he was captured by the Russians and, as was the case with many German soldiers, held prisoner after the war ended. "He convinced them he was Dutch," his grandson says, "so they released him." Wilhelm Zimmer walked home across war-ravaged Europe, tuning and repairing organs for food.

He moved his family to South Africa, and they came to Charlotte in 1964. "The Southeast didn't have organ builders at that time," says Zimmer, who opened his own shop in 1992. "My father wanted to retire, and my uncle was winding down. I purchased the pipe shop, and Tommy Linder, our pipe maker, came with it. He trained early on as a pipe maker, and he's been doing it for over 30 years now."

The company builds both pipe and digital organs, the latter created by recording the notes made by each pipe separately, then computerizing the sound so it can be played back by keyboard. "We don't necessarily use our own samples," Zimmer says. "We can use pipes from, say, the Mormon Tabernacle or the big organ at the U.S. Naval Academy." Pipe organs are more traditional. Each is designed to order, and while churches are the largest market, the company has built organs for private homes and colleges such as Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C. One is under way for the chapel at Campbell University in Buies Creek. Prices start at about $25,000 but can exceed $1 million. "Some of my competitors have built them for over $5 million," he says.

Zimmer has perhaps a dozen direct competitors, most small shops like his. Two other Tar Heel organ makers...