Electronic Organs

We are sorry to report that our friend Frank passed away on the 12th of Seprember 2013.

Greetings to all organ lovers! My name is Frank Pugno and I started this site in 2003 to fill a void that was on the Internet. There are thousands of web sites
devoted to Hammond tone wheel, pipe and reed organs, but very little about all the other electronic organs. This site is meant to fill that gap by providing
information about all electronic organs and the artists who performed and still perform on them.

I was born in the early 1950s and raised in southwest and western suburbs of Chicago. At the age of 12, I began study of the organ and studied with Al
Melgard of the Chicago Stadium, Frank Pellico of the United Center, Kilmer Spencer of the American Conservatory of Music, Tom Sheen (professional
organist), Dr. Herbert L. White of the Sherwood Conservatory of Music in Chicago and Lydia Smutney Sterba in the study of piano. My first job came after
two years of study. I am now an active organist in the Chicago metropolitan area. My experiences include television and radio appearances, the Governor’s
Mansion in Illinois and appeared before President Jimmy Carter and five Chicago mayors, including other dignitaries too numerous to mention. I have also
performed at such Chicago venues as the Daley Center, the John Hancock Center, Navy Pier, Como Inn, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Chicago
Hilton Hotel and Towers and the Drake Hotel, as well as Lenny Dee’s Dolphin Den in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. My church work has been extensive
over the years in both organ playing and choir directing. I have degrees in Music and Data Processing and have worked in computers.

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I am available for performances in the Chicago area. If an organ is not available, I have a Yamaha keyboard system that I can travel with. My email is
organgrinderfp@sbcglobal.net I look forward to hearing from you.

This site has grown in recent years and I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to it. Special thanks to Bill Reid, the Webmaster, who carries
out the updates and has added the International Organists section. Contributions to this site are welcome; I only ask there be no copyright infringements.

This website is about the electronic organ and its performers. References to pipe, reed, chord organs, and electronic keyboards are only fleeting. Pictures
and historical contributions are welcome, but please, no copyrighted material. None of the information herein is official and neither the organ companies nor
their current conglomerate corporations were consulted.

The question arises “What’s the difference between an electric and an electronic organ?” Not much, actually. The electronic organ uses vacuum tubes,
transistors or chips in the tone generator. Electric organs use anything else. Tone wheel Hammonds and Wurlitzer reed-electric organs are examples of
electric organs. Both types use electronics for amplification. All of these have generically been called electronic organs.

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