Manuel J. Rosales is President and Tonal Director of Rosales Organ Builders, Inc. He was born in New York City in 1947 and raised in Los Angeles. On his 14th birthday Manuel's father took him to see the movie Fantasia and he became enthralled with the music of J. S. Bach. An opportunity to work with his church's organ tuner led to an immediate realization that pipe organ building was going to be his life's work. He served his apprenticeship with the Schlicker Organ Company of Buffalo, New York, from 1968 until 1973.

In 1973, Manuel Rosales returned to Los Angeles to serve as the area service representative for the Schlicker Company and established his own firm, Rosales Pipe Organ Service. In 1980, Rosales Organ Builders, Inc., was formed during the construction of his Opus 9, the firm's largest instrument to that time, for the First Presbyterian Church in Granada Hills, California. The success of this two-manual 32 stop instrument led to several other contracts including his now famous Opus 11, a 52-stop instrument for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, of Portland, Oregon.

Frequently, foreign study tours are necessary to research projects at Rosales Organ Builders. In 1982, Manuel Rosales joined Charles Fisk and Harald Vogel on an organ study tour of Holland, and Northern and Eastern Germany. This association led to his involvement in the finishing of the Fisk organ at Stanford Memorial Church, Stanford University. In 1988, accompanied by Organ Builder and Historian Susan Tattershall, Manuel Rosales traveled to Mexico to study antique Mexican organs. During this trip he investigated and analyzed the construction of an organ in this style for Mission San José in Fremont, California, his Opus 14. From 1989 until the present, Rosales has made eight trips to France to study classical (Clicquot) and symphonic (Cavaillé-Coll) organs. These study trips influenced the construction of Rosales Opus 16 (a three-manual, 62-stop organ for the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, California), and aided in finalizing tonal design for Rosales Opus 21, (a three-manual 70-stop organ for the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, in Houston, Texas). This important instrument, a collaboration between C.B. Fisk and Rosales Organ Builders, was dedicated on April 7, 1997. In 1999, he traveled to England to study the work of the renowned organ builders Edmund Schulze and T.C. Lewis.

In 1998 Manuel Rosales completed his Opus 23 , a three-manual 38-stop organ for Saint Cyril of Jerusalem Roman Catholic Church in Encino, California. Also in 1998 Rosales Organ Builders provided voicing, tonal design, and pipe scaling for the 54-stop Glatter-Götz organ in the Claremont United Church of Christ, Congregational, in Claremont California.

Currently, Rosales Organ Builders is engaged in the following work: the tonal finishing for Rosales Opus 22 (a three-manual 41-stop instrument for Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia); the tonal finishing for Glatter-Götz Opus 4 (Neighborhood United Church of Christ, Congregational, Palos Verdes Estates, California); and the installation of Opus 27, a three-manual 52-stop organ for Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Future projects include organs for churches in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and the new four-manual, 70-stop organ for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

Manuel Rosales is a leader in the preservation of historic organs, particularly the instruments of pioneer Los Angeles organ builder Murray M. Harris. He served as a consultant for the restoration of the Harris organ at Stanford University, and as 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 of 146 stops.

Manuel Rosales is a member of the International Society of Organ Builders and the American Institute of Organ Builders. 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 has served as a member of the Executive Board of the Pasadena Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. In 1998 he was invited to serve on the executive board of the Ruth and Clarence Mader Memorial Foundation.

Frequently called upon as lecturer, Manuel Rosales has spoken to the Los Angeles and Long Beach Chapters of the American Guild of Organists; the A.G.O. National Convention in Atlanta; the Westfield Center for Keyboard Studies; the House of Hope Organ Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota; the San Anselmo Organ Festival; the National Association of Music Librarians and several times at American Institute of Organ Builders' national conventions. In May he will conduct two lectures and demonstrations on the art of voicing string pipes sponsored by the International Society of Organ Builders in Strasbourg, France. Frequently called upon as lecturer, Manuel Rosales has spoken to the Los Angeles and Long Beach Chapters of the American Guild of Organists; the A.G.O. National Convention in Atlanta; the Westfield Center for Keyboard Studies; the House of Hope Organ Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota; the San Anselmo Organ Festival; the National Association of Music Librarians; "Organ Alive!" at the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles and several times at American Institute of Organ Builders' national conventions. In May 1999 he taught two course in the "Art of Voicing String Pipes" sponsored by the International Society of Organ Builders in Strasbourg, France. In late April 2001 there will be repeat of the string voicing lectures for the American Institute of Organ Builders' mid-winter seminar in Chicago, Illinois.