By Ayo Onikoyi
Classical music virtuoso, Lanre Delano, has opened up on his decades-long crusade to rescue liturgical organ music from extinction in Nigeria, revealing how tactical advocacy and infrastructural investment paved the way for the country’s first university organ studies programme
Delano, an alumnus of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, is collaborating with his alma mater to launch a historic certificate and diploma programme in Organ Studies. The project represents a personal triumph for Delano, who recalled the steep resistance he initially faced from conservative institutions when introducing modern digital organs to Nigeria.
“By the time I stepped into this space, the organ was going into extinction. Churches were buying standard keyboards and calling them organs,” Delano remarked. He recounted a pivotal encounter where a church committee seeking a N400,000 keyboard questioned his sanity when he presented a N4 million digital organ proposal. “I had to educate them on the technical capabilities of the instrument. It took months, but they eventually saw the vision.”
Delano likened the technological leap from traditional pipe organs to modern digital organs to traveling by ship versus flying by airplane. “A pipe organ takes years to build, but a high-quality digital organ, played well, delivers the same majestic depth instantly,” he asserted.
