When the town of Lahti decided to build the Sibelius Hall, they also decided to leave space behind the choir loft for a large concert organ. This was an impressive decision, carried out by the architects of the hall, Kimmo Lintula and Hannu Tikka. During 1970 – 1990 there were many concert halls built in Finland, but with the exception of the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, none of them contain organs.

The space left in the hall made it possible to build a 52 stop French-romantic organ in the Sibelius hall. In 2003 was arranged a competition for the building of the organ in the Sibelius Hall. We received together seven bids from five different countries all over the world. The contract was signed with the Swedish organ factory Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri Ab on 25th May, 2004.

From the beginning to end, the organ is built by hand. There are altogether 4.500 pipes in the organ, the largest pipes are more than 10 meters long and the smallest only some millimeters long. The organ is 13 meters high, 10 meters broad and 3 meters deep. The façade is designed by the Swedish architect Ulf Oldaeus together with the architects of the Sibelius Hall Kimmo Lintula and Hannu Tikkka.

The Sibelius hall organ in the French romantic style promises a full and impressive sound, which will be further augmented by the excellent acoustics of the hall itself. The organ will enhance the repertoire of the orchestra, serve as a fine solo instrument, and broaden also the program of the Lahti Organ Festival, arranged in Lahti from 1973.

The inauguration concert for the Sibelius Hall organ was in the Sibelius Hall on 3rd May, 2007.

Funding
From the beginning, it has been private individuals who have shouldered the responsibility of raising funds for the organ. In 1998 Diploma organist Erkki Krohn founded the Pro Organo Pleno Society in order to raise funds for the organ of Sibelius Hall.

The “Concert Organ for the Sibelius Hall” –EU-project started at the beginning of 2002 and ended at the end of 2007. From the whole costs of the project 42 % were covered by private funding.
The whole costs of the EU project were 1.237.886 euros.
The costs are covered as follows:
European Union 487.408 euros
The City of Lahti 168.188 euros
The Regional Council of Päijät-Häme 49.844 euros
Private funding (sponsors, associations, 519.148 euros
private persons etc.
Concert income 13.298 euros
During the project there have been extra costs which were not possible to include in the EU project costs. For this reason, there is still about 8.500 euros missing from the budjet.