One of the world’s significant new organs was recently installed at the new Betty and Kenneth Hawkins Centennial Chapel on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill.

Formal public dedication of the Ruffatti pipe organ and a concert will be on Friday, January 28, 2011, 7 p.m.

Former Olivet organists — representing every decade from the 1940s to the present — as well as faculty organists Timothy Nelson and Ovid Young will perform.

This is a free event.

Famiglia Artigiana Fratelli Ruffatti (Ruffatti Brothers, Family of Artisans) of Padua, Italy — a renowned firm of pipe organ builders — created this instrument. In their design, they considered the University’s musical needs, as well as the architecture and acoustics of the Chapel. An instrument of 125 ranks, its size and quality rival the best pipe organs found in the churches and concert halls of the United States, as well as the great cathedrals of Europe. It contains 75 ranks of Ruffatti handmade, wind-blown pipes. The digital component features the remaining 50 ranks, created by the Massachusetts firm of Marshall & Ogletree. The four-manual console controls the “speech” of thousands of pipes, many of which are visible to the audience in the 3,046-seat auditorium that is the organ’s home.