WUFT-TV/FM | WJUF-FM
1200 Weimer Hall | P.O. Box 118405
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 392-5551

A service of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida.

© 2025 WUFT / Division of Media Properties
News and Public Media for North Central Florida
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Century of sound: UF celebrates 100th anniversary of University Auditorium’s pipe organ

A once-in-a-century celebration is happening at the University of Florida.

The Andrew Anderson Memorial Pipe Organ, located inside University Auditorium on UF’s campus, is turning 100.

All week long, the auditorium will be filled with performers, music and history as the university community celebrates one of its longest-standing instruments.

Organ performers will come together for a four-day celebration that will take place from Jan. 23 to Jan. 26., followed by events throughout the year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the instrument.

The organ came about from a donation from Dr. Andrew Anderson, a philanthropist from St. Augustine, who after seeing the newly constructed University Auditorium in 1924, decided to donate $50,000 toward installing the pipe organ.

A year later, on June 7, the Andrew Anderson Memorial Pipe Organ was dedicated with a performance by William Zeuch. Since then, the organ has undergone four major renovations and has hosted three university organists.

Laura Ellis, the university’s third organist and the UF School of Music associate director, organized the event this past summer.

She started by researching and getting connected with the guests and alumni. Aside from celebrating the pipe organ's centennial, she had one purpose in mind for the event: to highlight the diversity of the organ.

“There’s so many different things that the organ can do,” she said. “It’s cool to take it out of the church and have it just sort of in a neutral environment.”

The celebration will start with a recital by guest artist Stephen Tharp, who was sponsored by the Reuter Organ Company, which was in charge of the organ’s last renovation.

The audience will then have the chance to travel to the past on Friday, Jan. 24, when the pipe organ will provide music accompaniment for Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin silent movies.

“Well, in the theaters there was an organ, and somebody sat and played the organ during the movie, and they would sit and watch the movie, and they would play different things that would match up with what's going on on the screen,” Ellis said.

Composers from the school of music, as well as current studio members and alumni, will also debut new music.

Maggie Tran, a 21-year-old UF senior studying piano, started playing the organ during her freshman year. Now, she will have the opportunity to give a demonstration of how the instrument works and play one of her original pieces.

Tran said she hopes this will be an opportunity for her to connect with “the big kids.” And offered one piece of advice to the audience: “Be ready to be overwhelmed.”

Willis Bodin, UF’s second organist and carillonneur for 44 years, will also be celebrating the centennial of the organ he last played in 2003 – the year of his retirement.

“There are four days of celebrating an instrument that is 100 years old. There are not many things or many people in our culture that are 100 years old, so there’s real cause for celebration,” he said.

Bodin recommends that people sit in the middle of the auditorium, so they can hear not only the diverse sounds of the more than 5,000 different pipes, but also watch the organist perform.

The organ player's hands will move up and down the five keyboards while his feet play along the pedal keyboard.

“They [pianists] don’t have to move, but the organist has to move around quite a bit, and so it’s interesting to see,” Bodin said.

He said he is excited that the event will be an opportunity for him to reunite with some of his former students.

“Well, I’m not holding a grade book over them anymore, so it’s a little different,” he said.

Bodin succeeded Claude Murphree, UF’s first organist. Murphree was known for performing concerts every other Sunday afternoon.

The event will end with Dr. Laura Ellis recreating one of his Sunday afternoon recitals.

“Dr. Ellis found the program of one of them, like one of the first ones, and she’s learned all the music, and she’s going to perform that for us 100 years later,” Tran said.

For more information on the event, visit the UF Pipe Organ Centennial home page.

Isabela is a reporter for WUFT News who can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.