Newsletters from the Centennial Organ Committee:

Click here for the February, 2026, newsletter!

The Centennial Organ has found a new home, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament! Heartfelt thank you to the pastor of the Cathedral, the Very Rev. Michael O’Reily, and Bishop’s Soto (presiding) and Weigand (emeritus) as well as our intrepid colleague Rex Rallanka, organist, and music director of the Cathedral. Congratulations Rex on this incredible instrument! 

Plans are being made to enlarge the organ to a fourth division and enlarge the pedal to the original vision of Dr. David H. Rothe, Organist Emeritus of California State University at Chico. Stay tuned for the announcement of the inaugural date. The organ is currently in storage at the Cathedral awaiting installation.

Rescuing the Chico Centennial Organ by Munetaka Yokota:

The State University at Chico had put its
fine Central German style organ up for Public Auction
(!!!!). It could be had at that point for just
over a hundred dollars. An organ that
is estimated at 1.7 Million. (I wish there
was an exclamation point that denoted
fainting, I would use it here)

But regardless of the money, it is among the
finest examples of that style of building
during the life and times of Johann
Sebastian Bach, a great composer to
be sure, but who's pulpit, his personal
medium of expression, was the organ.

The intricacies of his music are
illuminated by this instrument - it is an
incredible teaching tool and window
into a bygone era. When your fingers
touch the keys of the organ, you are
transported to another time and the
sonorities that follow lift the music to
extraordinary heights of understanding.
It is the perfect medium to comprehend
the organ music of J.S. Bach.

We won the organ at auction and it is now in storage awaiting its new home.

Ron Sidhu