Name Manuel Rosales | ||
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Manuel J. Rosales, Jr., (born 1947, New York City) is an American organ builder whose instruments display a strong synthesis of romantic and contemporary styles. His workshop has built over 30 pipe organs with his notable output including collaborations on the instruments at Walt Disney Concert Hall and Rice University.
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Notable Instruments
Rosales achieved notoriety in 1987 with the bold tonal design of his new instrument for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. Built at a cost of $1 million, a substantial figure for an organ at that time, it is considered to be “one of the great organs in the United States”. Two years later, Rosales completed an organ conceived in the early Spanish style for Mission San Jose, joining a movement of American organ builders who, during the 1980s and 1990s, designed instruments in specific historic styles that embrace the literature of their period.
Notable Collaborations
In 1995, Rosales collaborated with the organ building firm of C. B. Fisk in the design and voicing of a 75-stop organ for the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Designed along French classical and romantic lines, its full ensemble is intended to evoke the powerful and fiery tone found in the works of Aristide Cavaille-Coll.
Rosales consulted on the organ for the Walt Disney Concert Hall, working for two years with architect Frank Gehry to arrive at a solution that would integrate Gehry’s sculptural vision of an explosion of pipework with the musical requirements for a functional organ. Later, Glatter-Gotz Orgelbau company of Owingen, Germany, built the instrument and installed it in 2004, with Rosales completing the finishing and voicing process later that year.