Famiglia Artigiana Fratelli Ruffatti (Ruffatti Brothers, Family of Artisans) is a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Padua, Italy.
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In 1940, Antonio Ruffatti and his two brothers founded the firm of Famiglia Artigiana Fratelli Ruffatti—Ruffatti Brothers, Family of Artisans—the full and original name of the company which remains unchanged today. The firm has produced more than five hundred instruments of all sizes, in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The lineage and heritage of Fratelli Ruffatti continues in the twenty-first century with the second generation of Ruffatti brothers, Francesco Ruffatti and Piero Ruffatti, the sons of Antonio, who joined the firm as partners in 1968. Since their father's retirement in 1992, Francesco and Piero have shared the responsibility of running Fratelli Ruffatti.[1]
Each Fratelli Ruffatti organ is unique.The tonal planning of each instrument takes into consideration the ideas and musical needs of the customer as well as the space available and the acoustic environment. The primary objective of the aesthetic design is to blend with the existing architecture. Although most Ruffatti instruments utilize the traditional mechanical action, they also produce instruments with highly developed and efficient electro-pneumatic and all-electric actions. While Ruffatti's continue to refine the sounds of warm Italian principals and singing flutes, they have added a wide variety of European and American organ sounds previously unknown in Italy, making their instruments international.
In this world of specialization and corporate diversification, it is possible to have parts from ten or twenty different manufacturers and suppliers within a single instrument. It is the Ruffatti tradition, however, to manufacture every organ part possible in their own factory, from the windchests to wooden drawknobs and stop tablets, to the flue and reed pipes. They select only first-quality materials for the instruments to ensure durability and efficient performance under the most widely varying climatic conditions. Ruffatti buys only organically cured leather from a tiny village in Southern Italy. they also select African mahogany logs as they come off the ship and season the wood naturally in the shop for five years or more before use. The metal alloy is selected to best suit each rank of pipes in each organ and pipe metals are poured to specific formulas.
Some of the manufacturing processes, such as the metal pipe department, are all done by hand, using centuries-old techniques. Other processes rely on modern machinery, some of which has been invented by their own craftsmen, to perform highly specialized tasks. Advanced technology is partnered with handcrafted detail.
After manufacture and before shipping, each organ is completely assembled in the erecting room of the factory. Every part of the instrument is then checked to avoid any structural work to be completed at the installation site.[2]
The company is well known for the high profile instruments it has installed over the years - such as the organ at the Crystal Cathedral, the organ at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Fátima, Portugal, and the 117-rank organ designed by Diane Bish for the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.