Luciana Lemes, from Sao Paulo de Lorraine, worked on the restoration team of the cathedral organ in Paris, which was consumed by fire five years ago
When the first note of the organ Notre Dame Cathedral will still resonate among the Gothic arches of Paris this weekend, Luciana Lemes will listen happily. The young 29-year-old, born in Lorraine, in the Paraíba valley, is one of those responsible for the restoration and tuning of the instrument built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899) in 1868.
Luciana’s history with the pipe organ begins in her childhood, when she participated in the choir of the Cathedral of her hometown. It was there that he first heard the story of the church organ, a small organ, built by the same person who had built the one at Notre Dame.
He says a new organist had started using the instrument and started a campaign to restore it. “Everything was very different, no one really knew what it was, but everyone was trying to raise awareness of the importance of restoring that instrument,” he recalls. How the instrument ended up in the city, no one really knew.
The awakening of the vocation
The restoration project was shelved after the organist’s death. Dissatisfied, Luciana began to study the topic, looking for people, books and documents that could help her understand everything. “How could you throw away such a heritage?” he wondered.
He went to study music and, at university, at the age of 19, decided that Lorraine’s Cavaillé-Coll would be the theme of his coursework. “Looking for people all over the world who could help me, I found the organist Shelly Moorman, a professor at a university in Pennsylvania, in the United States,” he said Estadao.
International learning
Shelly Moorman not only gave young Luciana information, but also invited her to an internship at a factory specializing in organ restoration. “There I realized that I could acquire the necessary knowledge to be able to help Brazil,” he says.
After the internship she went to Virginia, also in the United States, where she completed her training as a tube player, i.e. the person who builds and restores organ pipes, and harmonist, responsible for tuning the instrument. “I finally had an interesting CV to try to go to France,” he says.
The instrument, which survived the 2019 fire, needed complex repairs to play again. Luciana participated in the decisive phases of the work, such as the removal of the damaged tubes, the creation of new components and the reintegration of the restored parts into the main instrument.
He also worked on tuning the instrument. There were weeks of tuning, a job that involved two teams: two organists who tuned during the day and another two during the night. “It was a surreal feeling to be there, sharing everyday life with other workers, painters, restorers, carpenters, sleepers, etc,” he says.
In addition to Lorraine, the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Belém, Curitiba, Campinas, Jundiaí and Itu have received Cavaillé-Colls organs in Brazil. Luciana says she is now ready to return to the countryside and help restore the remaining Cavaillé-Colls.
Source: Terra
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