MANUEL J. ROSALES is President and Tonal Director of Rosales Organ Builders, Inc., Los Angeles, California. He was born in New York City in 1947 and reared in Los Angeles, where he attended parochial schools for his elementary and secondary school education. His formal education also included classes at Los Angeles City College, Immaculate Heart College, and the University of California at Los Angeles.

When his father took him to see the movie "Fantasia" on his fourteenth birthday, he became enthralled with the music of J. S. Bach. A fascination with the organ developed, which led to his curiosity about the pipes and mechanisms of the instrument. An opportunity to work with his church's organ tuner led to an immediate realization that making organs was going to be his life's work.

Rosales served his apprenticeship with Herman Schlicker of Buffalo, New York, from 1969 until 1975. During his employment by the Schlicker Organ Company, he participated in the installation and tonal finshing of approximately twenty-five organs throughout the United States, including several new organs in southern California. Additionally, he received further training in flue and reed voicing under Los Angeles organ builders J. Leland Haggart and Kenneth R. Simpson.

In 1972 Mr. Rosales returned to Los Angeles from Buffalo to serve as the area service representative for the Schlicker Organ Company. He also established his own company, Rosales Pipe Organ Service, which specialized in service and restoration work. The firm was incorporated in 1980 as Rosales Organ Builders.

In 1982 Mr. Rosales joined Charles Fisk and Harald Vogel on an organ study tour of The Netherlands and northern and eastern Germany. This association led to his involvement in the finishing of the Fisk organ at the University Memorial Church, Stanford University. Other research has included field work with Susan Tattershall in 1988 on antique Mexican organs in connection with the firm's construction of his Opus 16, an organ of III/62 for the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, California.

Manuel Rosales is a member of the International Society of Organ Builders and The American Institute of Organbuilders. He is also a founding member of the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the Organ Historical Society, a past national councilor for the Organ Historical Society in America, and a past member of the Executive Board of the Pasadena Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Manuel Rosales has lectured many times for the Los Angeles and Long Beach Chapters of the American Guild or Organists, the American Guild of Organists national convention in Atlanta, the Westfield Center for Keyboard Studies, the House of Hope Organ Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota, three times for the San Anselmo Organ Festival, and several times for national conventions of the American Institute of Organ Builders.

Manuel Rosales is a leader in the preservation of historic organs, particularly the instruments of pioneer Los Angeles builder Murray M. Harris. He served as a consultant for the restoration of the Harris organ at Stanford University and the project consultant for the restoration and reinstallation of a 1911 Harris organ at St. James' Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. Currently he serves on the Technical Advisory Board for the restoration of the organ at the Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia, at whose core is a 1904 Murray M. Harris organ of 146 stops.