Since its installation more than 60 years ago, the Schlicker pipe organ has captured the musical attention and creative imagination of generations of Poets and Memorial Chapel guests. Now, this majestic member of the Whittier College music department needs restoration to keep its pipes singing beautifully.
Restoring this campus treasure is nearly a tenth of the cost of replacing it. All of the needed repairs will take a year once funds are secured, and your support of this project today will help ensure the Schlicker pipe organ continues to enrich the Whittier College experience for generations more to come.
Mark your calendar for February 21 for the Whittier College Organ Restoration Extravaganza.
Join the email list to receive updates and ticket information: organrestoration@whittier.edu, or call 562.907.4237.
The condition of the organ can be categorized into three sections:
Donated in 1963 by longtime trustee Sara Blake, the Schlicker pipe organ was called "one of the finest of its kind and the first of its type to be placed on the campus of a college on the West Coast." Built especially for Memorial Chapel by the Schlicker Organ Company, the organ features 2,095 speaking pipes and took over a year to build.
"The instrument is perfectly adapted to the chapel and the fine acoustics of the building," said then-college organ instructor Robert Prichard.
Fun fact: When President Kristine E. Dillon '73, Ph.D. and John Curry married in Memorial Chapel, professor Orpha Ochse played the organ for their service.
Practicing in the Memorial Chapel after classes became my favorite routine. I remember late nights preparing for my senior recital, surrounded by the pipes and completely immersed in their sound. Though the organ looks like piano, it opens an entirely new world of coordination and expression that helped me grow as a musician. ... The restoration of Memorial Chapel organ will inspire and nurture future generations of musicians at Whittier College, just as it did for me.
Entering as a music major in my junior year, and an established student of Robert Prichard, organ instructor, this was my first college experience away from home... [The organ] was an ideal instrument from my performance ... All my experiences in the Whittier College days have had a warm and positive effect on my life. An evaluation of the time spent in the Music Department can be easily reduced to one word: SOLID.
Contact Teresa LeVelle at tlevelle@whittier.edu.
