Our Team
Martin Pasi
Pasi received his first formal experience in organ building during a four-year apprenticeship with the Rieger Company in his native Austria, and since opening his first shop in 1990, he has completed 29 instruments.
Markus Morscher
Markus Morscher was born into a family which has practiced woodworking for several centuries. He formally studied woodworking in Braz, Austria, and has completed masterworks in furniture, architectural elements, and cabinetry. Morscher has spent the past 33 years as an organ builder.
Mark Matters
Mark Matters studied both engineering and music at the University of Minnesota. He then built a career in pipe organs around designing and manufacturing PipeOrganControl systems and aluminum pipes. After meeting Martin Pasi during the installation of opus 27 while performing all chamber wiring, he has continued his association by supplying parts and wiring for both opuses 28 and 29.
Fr. Lew Grobe, O.S.B.
Fr. Lew Grobe, O.S.B., is a monk of Saint John’s Abbey. He learned woodworking under the guidance of master woodworker Michael Roske. For the past four years, he has directed Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking. He also serves as the Formation Director for the monastery.
Kevin Vogt
Kevin Vogt been a full-time church musician and organist for over 35 years, and a university teacher of organ and church music for over 15 years. He received degrees in organ from St. Olaf College, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Kansas, and has served as organ consultant for the commissioning and building of several organs by some of North America’s finest organ builders. He has enjoyed a close association with Martin Pasi for over 25 years, and now provides support for Saint John’s Abbey Organ Builders assisting with client relations and project development.
K.C. Marrin
K.C Marrin graduated from Saint John’s University in 1971. Under the mentorship of Br. Hubert Schneider, OSB, he developed a life-long interest in fine woodworking and began an on-going friendship with the Collegeville Benedictine Community. As a regional pipe organ serviceman, he tuned, repaired, and restored instruments primarily in Stearns County, MN, later designing and building 11 new instruments in his shop in Cold Spring, MN. He also assisted Martin Pasi in the recent expansion of the abbey’s Holtkamp pipe organ and collaborated in the design of the new Abbey Woodshop.
Sam Culver
Sam Culver started as the inaugural apprentice of Saint John’s Abbey Organ Builders in January. An organist himself, Sam has a deep love for the instrument. Over the next years of apprenticeship, he hopes to learn and participate in the creation of these majestic instruments that give glory to God and provide beauty to the liturgy.
Our Wider Community
The Abbey Woodshop is also home to Saint John’s Abbey Woodworking and Abbey Artisans. We collaborate and share the space with Abbey woodworkers, student workers from CSB/SJU, and volunteers (pictured here).
