Service Playing

This past summer I played the organ for eleven services at four churches.

At the console of E. & G. G. Hook, Opus 288 (1860), St. John’s Catholic Church, Bangor

At one of the Masses at St. John’s this summer I played some duets with Anthony Viselli, violinist.  Anthony is a fellow music student at the University of Maine.

With Susan White, oboeist, at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, Brewer.  We often play duets together.

Hook & Hastings, Opus 2223 (1909), Hampden Highlands United Methodist Church

I am also privileged to practice regularly on this historic organ, which is 5 minutes from my home.

At the console of the Karl Wilhelm, Inc. (2000) organ, St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church, Blue Hill

McGill Summer Organ Academy in Montreal

Along with about 50 other organists, I attended the McGill Summer Organ Academy in Montreal July 20-30.  This Academy is held every two years and this was the 10^th Academy offered.

http://msoa.ca/

This academy offered 9 courses with 8 faculty from Canada, the United States, Italy, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands.  The courses were held over two weeks and participants could register for the same or different courses for each week.  The courses were Master Classes and participants could audit or be an active participant in each course.  Active participants prepared organ pieces ahead of time to perform for the professor and the class.  I was active for two weeks in the Continuo class with Hank Knox, and active for the first week and audited the second week in the French Classical course with John Grew.  I learned a tremendous amount in both classes and I plan to attend again in two years.

In the Continuo Class I learned the standard 17^th and 18^th Century sequences and cadential formulas and to recognize the common figured bass chord symbols.  We used a harpsichord for this class and we accompanied a singer near the end of the class.

With Hank Knox at the harpsichord in Schulich Hall

In the French Classical class, we learned about the music of Clérambault and Couperin in the first week, and the music of de Grigny, and d’Anglebert in the second week.  This class included how to interpret this style of music: the articulation, fingering, various types of ornaments and notes inégales.  We were very fortunate to have our classes on the Hellmuth Wolff French classical organ, Opus 24 (1981) in Redpath Hall.  In preparation for the class, I learned three pieces by Clérambault: the Récit de Nazard and the Duo from his second suite, and the Fugue from the first suite.

With John Grew at the console of the Hellmuth Wolff organ in Redpath Hall

The McGill Academy included 10 faculty concerts, so we had a concert almost every evening, and two concerts on Saturday and two on Sunday.  Some of these concerts were at McGill University in Redpath Hall, and some were in area churches.  One of the most memorable concerts was presented on July 22 by William Porter and Edorardo Bellotti in Redpath Hall.  This concert began with Bellotti playing music of Pasquini and Storace on the harpsichord.  Then Porter played music of Nivers, Jullien, and de Grigny on the organ.  The highlight of this concert was Bellotti and Porter on two harpsichords improvising on the theme “Follia.”  This was billed as competition between the Italian and French styles.  This was delightful and the audience gave them a standing ovation.

On Saturday, July 25, the class took a field trip on a bus to the St. Benoit du Lac Abbey for an all-Bach concert by William Porter on the Karl Wilhelm organ and then to the Old Brick Church in West Brome for a concert by Edoardo Bellotti.  He played music of Frescobaldi, Merula, Zipoli, and Marcello on a replica of an early Italian organ and music of Frescobaldi and Pasquini on the harpsichord.

Replica of an Italian Organ at the Brick Church, West Brome

The McGill Academy was also an opportunity to meet organ lovers from around the world.  About half of the participants were students in a degree program and the other half were working organists.

With Linda Raney, Music Director at First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Organ Historical Society Convention in Western Massachusetts

I spent June 28 through July 2 in western Massachusetts at the 60^th annual Organ Historical Society (OHS) convention along with 300 other people who love organs.  It was a chance to connect and reconnect with good friends and to see and hear 26 organs played by skilled organists.  The mission of the OHS 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 Mount Holyoke College, 22 churches, and a Jewish Synagogue.  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 1850 to 2014, with more than half of them built in the 19^th Century.  Six of the organs were built by William A. Johnson, five by Ernest M. Skinner, and five by Casavant Frères.  Barbara Owen gave a lecture about the organ builders of the area with a special focus on William A. Johnson, who was the first organ builder in the area. Fourteen of the organs had two manuals, five had three manuals, four had four manuals, and three had one manual.

There was a wide variety of music from renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary time periods, all played expertly.  The performers often chose at least some music for their programs that was written about the time that the organs were built.

You can see some photos from the convention at:

https://www.facebook.com/OrganSociety?fref=ts

I met two women who began studying the pipe organ after they retired from another career, just like I did!  Vicki Anderson is a retired physician who lives in Minnesota and she takes private organ lessons and sometimes plays for services at her church.  Renate McLaughlin is a retired university professor and administrator who lives in Michigan.  She earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in organ and church music after she retired.  She continues to learn new repertoire and she often plays services as a substitute organist.  Their enthusiasm for the pipe organ is contagious and I was encouraged by their experiences.

With Renate McLaughlin in the Chapel at Mount Holyoke College

The OHS provided a live webcast of the July 2 recital by Nathan Laube at Mount Holyoke College playing two different organs.  He played music of Buxtehude, Cabanilles, Poglietti, Rossi, Noordt and Goudimal on a 2-manual C. B. Fisk (Opus 84, 1986) Italian/German baroque organ Laube and played music of Rachmaninoff, Duprè, Howells, and Jongen on an organ that was built in 1898 by Hutchings (Opus 436).  This organ was then expanded by Skinner in 1922 (Opus 367) and 1938 (Opus 511) and then restored by Baker in 2001 and Czelusniak et Dugal in 2013.  Although webcasts from previous OHS conventions are on the OHS website, the recording of this July 2 Laube performance is not yet posted as of the date of this post.  If the recorded performance is posted in the future, it will be at this website:

http://www.organsociety.org/2015/

The Western Massachusetts convention handbook can be downloaded:

http://organsociety.org/html/convention/downloads/2015-Handbook.pdf

With my friend from New Jersey, Fran Morton, in the Chapel at Mount Holyoke College

New York Symphony and Ballet

My long weekend in New York June 12-14 was very stimulating and filled with music.  Arthur Honegger’s dramatic oratorio, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) was performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert.  This oratorio portrayed Joan of Arc as she lived her final minutes and remembered some of the events that led her to that point.  Performed in French with English supertitles, this was masterful and very moving.  New York Choral Arts provided the vocal parts and there were three speaking roles that moved the drama along.  The title role, a speaking role, was played by Marion Cotillard with intensity and innocence.  Here is a brief review of this oratorio:

http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2015/06/philharmonic-closes-season-with-a-moving-and-masterful-joan-of-arc/

Marion Cotillard in the title role of Honegger’s Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, 

Photo by Chris Lee

I had the good fortune to see the American Ballet Theater's (ABT’s) extraordinary and elegant performance of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.  This staging is notable because ABT’s artist-in-residence, Alexei Ratmansky, researched in detail the choreography of Marius Petipa and the costumes from the first performances of this ballet in 1890 in St. Petersburg, Russia.  This production hearkens back to a view of an old-world court in two time periods separated by 100 years.  Ratmansky cast several children from ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis ballet school, where my friend’s daughter, Julia Levine, is a student.  Julia danced two roles in Sleeping Beauty.

Gillian Murphy as Aurora in ABT’s The Sleeping Beauty, Photo by Gene Schiavone

With Julia Levine at the American Ballet Theater

A Summer Filled with Music

I am excited to have several major musical activities planned this summer.

First, I plan to see the American Ballet Theater's performance of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty in New York on June 13.  I have a friend who is dancing in this ballet.

http://www.abt.org/performances/performance_display.asp?Event_ID=885&Date_ID=1731

While I am in New York, I will also attend a performance by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert of Arthur Honegger’s oratorio, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake)

http://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/1415/joan-of-arc-at-the-stake

Second, while Kevin Birch, the Music Director for St. John’s and St. Teresa’s churches, is concertizing in Europe this summer, I will play the organ for all the Masses at St. John’s Church the weekends of June 28/29, July 4/5, and July 12/13.  I will also play at St. Teresa’s on July 5 and 13.  I am excited about this and I am learning new hymns in preparation.  Some friends will play duets with me at some of the Masses. 

Third, I will attend the Organ Historical Society convention from June 30 through July 3 in western Massachusetts (Springfield).  I look forward to connecting with friends and hearing accomplished organists play on historic organs.  For more information:

www.organsociety.com

Fourth, from July 20 through 30 I will be in Montreal at the McGill University Summer Organ Institute.  I enrolled in courses in Continuo taught by Hank Knox and in French Classical music taught by John Grew.  In preparation, I am learning some French Classical music by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1679-1749).  This institute is offered every two years and this is the first time I will attend.  

http://www.msoa.ca/content/msoa2015/courses-15/index.shtml

St. John’s Organ Society Summer Organ Concerts in Bangor

I am on the Board of the St. John’s Organ Society.  We have six wonderful organ concerts planned for this summer on Thursday evenings at 7:30 pm on the historic E. & G.G. Hook organ, Opus 288 (1860) at St. John’s Catholic Church, 207 York Street, Bangor.  The first concert on July 23 features George Bozeman of Deerfield, New Hampshire.  I am responsible for most of the publicity for these concerts.  For more information on these wonderful events visit our web page:

http://hookopus288.net/summer-concert-series/

At the console of the Visser-Rowland Organ, Opus 6 (1976), at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, Bar Harbor, Maine.  Practicing on May 27, 2015 for the American Guild of Organists Member Recital

University Rhythms

Upcoming Concerts

I will be one of the performers at the American Guild of Organists Member Recital on Sunday, May 31, at 4 pm, at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church, at 41 Mt. Desert St., Bar Harbor, Maine.  I will play two trios from Ten Trios for Organ (Opus 49) by Josef Rheinberger (1839 – 1901):  Number 3 in A Minor and Number 7 in A Major.  Admission is free, and donations support the scholarship fund.

University Rhythms

The rhythm of university life is oriented toward each semester with the goal being graduation after degree requirements are met.  Each semester gets more intense in the middle for midterms, and then again for the final several weeks of each course as requirements are completed.  The spring semester is often more intense than the fall semester because the seniors are getting ready to graduate and thus performing in their senior recitals, the juniors are performing in their junior recitals, and the sophomores are completing their “junior standing” in their primary instrument.  Junior Standing is a jury that is performed for all the faculty that is required for most students to progress to the junior level in their major instrument.

Because I already have a Bachelor’s degree in another discipline (mathematics), I do not have to take any non-music courses to get my Bachelor of Arts in Music; I only need to complete the music department requirements.  This means that I am not in the same four-year rhythm as most of the other students because I will complete my degree in less than four years.  So I am in classes with sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  This is an advantage because I finish the degree requirements in less than four years, but it is also a disadvantage because music skills develop with practice, and I will only have two and a half years to practice, instead of four.   I plan to graduate in May 2016.

Finishing Spring Semester

I completed my juries and final exams for the Spring Semester on May 7.  During juries, multiple professors listen to me play or sing music that I have practiced during the past semester.  I performed in juries for organ, piano, and voice.

In addition to lessons in pipe organ, piano, and voice, I took classes in harmony, ear training, and choral conducting and participated in the Collegiate Chorale ensemble.  This completes most of my required coursework for my Bachelor of Arts degree.  Looking ahead, I am required to take four more courses over the next year.  I plan to use the entire academic year to take these courses and continue lessons in organ, piano, and voice.  I will be one of the five student conductors in the fall of the Collegiate Chorale, and I am excited to be the music intern at St. John’s Catholic Church.  As part of this internship, I will play the organ for some services, direct the choir for some selections, and I will likely do some special projects.  In addition to the St. John’s internship, I will focus the 2016 spring semester on my senior project, which will be an organ lecture/recital. 

My last blog post was on March 20.  Since then, besides completing my university coursework, I played the Rheinberger "Trio Number 7 in A Major" in Recital Lab on April 13.  Everyone who is taking music lessons at the university performs once each semester in recital lab for faculty and fellow students on their major instrument.  I sang in both church and school choir concerts.  I played the organ for Mass on Palm Sunday at St. Teresa’s Church.  I composed a 12-tone piece for flute and piano as an assignment for my harmony class.  For part of my choral conducting exam I conducted the University Singers in a rehearsal of the “Ave Maria” attributed to Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Right after final exams, my husband, John, and I flew to Denver, Colorado to visit our daughter, Carletta, and her husband, Aaron for two weeks.  While I was in Denver, I contacted the organist at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Kathleen MacLean, who graciously arranged for me to briefly play the cathedral organ.  This organ was originally built by W. W. Kimball in 1912.  It was rebuilt and expanded in 1996 by Morel and Associates.

http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=9624

At the console of the Kimball organ at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Denver, Colorado