Organ Historical Society Convention in Syracuse, New York

I spent August 11-14 in Syracuse, New York at the 59^th annual Organ Historical Society convention along with over 300 other people who love organs.  It was a chance to connect and reconnect with good friends and to see and hear 19 organs played by skilled organists.  The mission of the Organ Historical Society is to celebrate, preserve, and study the pipe organ in America, in all its historic styles, through research, education, advocacy, and music.

We visited organs at two universities (University of Syracuse and Cornell University) twelve churches, and a Jewish Temple.  Each organist includes a hymn in her/his program, so the churches and auditoriums are filled not only with beautiful organ music, but also with robust singing.  The convention attendees ride busses to the various venues and bus rides are often a place to meet new friends and catch up with current friends.  We all received a book that lists the organists’ programs and the organ’s builders and stop lists.  The organs were created anywhere from 1748 to 2011.  Both the oldest and newest organs were at Cornell University.  The 1748 organ was built by Augustinus Vicedomini of Naples, Italy.  The 2011 organ was a collaboration between Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Gothenburg Organ Art Center (GOArt) at the University of Göteborg, Sweden.  This organ recreates the tonal design of an Arp Schnitger organ (1706) in Charlottenburg Castle, Berlin, Germany.  Each of the nearly 2,000 pipes was handcrafted in Sweden under the direction of project designer Munetaka Yokota.  In addition, we heard three organs from the 19^th Century and 14 organs from the 20^th Century.

There was a wide variety of music from renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary time periods, all played expertly.  We also heard two lectures.  One lecture was on the building of the GOArt organ and the other was on organist and composer, I.V. Flagler.

You can see some photos from the convention at:

https://www.facebook.com/OrganSociety

You can watch and hear the convention recital by Christopher Houlihan performing music of Johann Sebastian Bach and César Franck at Sage Chapel at Cornell University playing Aeolian-Skinner organ, Opus 1009 (1940):

http://www.organsociety.org/2014/webcast.html

This runs about an hour and twenty minutes.

The Syracuse convention handbook can be downloaded:

http://www.organsociety.org/html/convention/downloads/2014-Handbook.pdf

With Matthias Schmelmer, Sarah Johnson, and Fran Morton at Syracuse’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Shantz organ, Opus 1594 (1980) which is a rebuild of Frank Roosevelt organ, Opus 520 (1892)

Summer Music

Many people have asked me to record an organ piece.  I recorded J. S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Minor (“The Cathedral”) in June on E. & G.G. Hook’s Opus 288 at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor.  Listen here:

https://soundcloud.com/catherine-bruno/prelude-and-fugue-in-e-minor

The St. John’s Organ Society Summer Concert series is off to a wonderful start featuring outstanding organ music performed by artists from Europe, Asia, and North America.  This summer four of our six concerts feature two performers.

On July 24, Rudolf Innig from Bielefeld, Germany started the series performing music of J.S. Bach, Horatio Parker, Felix Mendelssohn, and Josef Rheinberger.  My two daughters and two granddaughters were visiting us in Maine and they enjoyed the concert.

On July 31, we heard the husband and wife team of Naomi Shiga and Jonathan Wohlers from Tacoma Washington, play music of Adolph Friedrich Hesse, Johannes Brahms, J. S. Bach, Johann Christian Bach, and Jean Sibelius.  They played three duets and each of them played three individual pieces.  The audience particularly enjoyed a transcription for organ duet of Sibelius’ famous Finlandia, Opus 26, no.7.

For more information about the upcoming four St. John’s Organ Society concerts:  http://hookopus288.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/hookopus288.  St. John's Organ Society is a nonprofit organization committed to the preservation and appreciation of the historic E. & G. G. Hook pipe organ, Opus 288, located at St. John’s Catholic Church in Bangor.  I am the Secretary of the Board of the St. John's Organ Society, and I write the publicity materials for these organ concerts.

St. Saviour Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor, Maine, also has a summer organ concert series on their 1976 Visser-Rowland organ (Opus 6).  On August 1, I attended a concert performed by Dr. Kevin Birch, who is my teacher, the Director of Music at St. John’s, and the Director of the St. John’s Organ Society.  Kevin expertly played 16^th and 17^th-century organ music by Bernardo Pasquini, an anonymous English composer, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Nicolaus Bruhns.

Next week (August 11-15) I will be in Syracuse, New York attending the convention of the Organ Historical Society.  I look forward to spending time with many friends and to hearing historic organs played by skilled organists.

It is hard to believe that school starts in less than a month!  The fall semester at the University of Maine begins on September 2.