Greg Harrold became an organbuilder almost by accident. Job seeking after high school, Greg was looking through the yellow pages and noticed a listing for an organbuilder, Abbott & Sieker in West Los Angeles. As an amateur musician, organbuilding intrigued him, and he interviewed and was hired as their pipe maker in July of 1974.

In six months he was convinced that he could make a career as an organbuilder. He started to design and build an organ in his spare time in order to explore every aspect of the craft. Three years later this little organ, his Opus 1, was making music.

It attracted the attention and admiration of music faculty at both UCLA and at UC Berkeley. They suggested that he expand his training by working at another workshop. Greg began work for John Brombaugh in 1978 in Eugene, Oregon, where he learned to make reed pipes. Also, Greg was exposed to a style of organbuilding strongly informed by the research of antique organs.

After a first trip to Europe in 1978 Greg became even more convinced that making new organs based on techniques used in antique organs would be his method.

Returning to Los Angeles, Greg opened his own workshop in April of 1979 with a job to repair one of the antique organs in the collection at UC Berkeley. Subsequent research trips to Europe and the construction of new organs continued to educate and enrich his organbuilding knowledge and skill. Occasionally hiring help, but primarily working alone, Greg continued in his small West Los Angeles shop to design and build organs for twenty-four years.

His Opus 11 at UC Berkeley was built accurately in the style of organs built in the Aragón region of Spain in the late seventeenth century. The rest of the organs he has built were strongly influenced by seventeenth and eighteenth century North European organs.

Greg Harrold's unique combination of old world techniques and artistry, historical expertise, fine carpentry skills, and refined voicing talent makes each of the Harrold organs a jewel.

He closed his shop in 2003 due to disability but maintains an active interest in organbuilding.