Regional American Guild for Organists Convention Concerts

[KB7DQH]

http://blog.pennlive.com/go/2011/06/pipe_dream_becomes_reality_for.html

David Hoffman loves organ music. He says "a good pipe organ runs the gamut from the quietest, most calming music to a sound larger than a symphony can give you."
   
Hoffman is on the steering committee for the American Guild of Organists' regional convention, which has been in the planning process for more than three years. The regional website has a countdown clock to Monday when more than 200 eager organ aficionados will be here attending workshops and exhibitions, centered in the Harrisburg area.
   
What's in it for the rest of us?
   
Every day there are recitals and concerts open to the public. You can hear music composed 400 years ago plus world premieres of pieces composed recently, played by outstanding musicians. You can visit architecturally stunning churches to hear music played on an interesting variety of instruments, with 13 organs featured during the week. And all but one of these concerts is absolutely free.
   
The convention planners have focused on young and upcoming artists with daytime performances by student organists from the Peabody Conservatory, the Curtis School of Music and Westminster Choir College, all institutions in the region encompassed by the conference.
   
It's customary for works to be commissioned for these conventions, and three well-known composers with strong local ties have created new works for world premieres. One is by Lebanon Valley College professor Scott Eggert, and Shelly Moorman-Stahlman will play the piece at the college during a recital there beginning at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.
   
Robert Lau's anthem "Holy God We Praise Thy Name" will have its first performance by Toronto-based organist John Tuttle Monday night at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Lau is an extremely prolific nationally known composer who lives in Camp Hill.
   
This piece is a concertanto, written for choir, brass quartet, organ and congregational voices, meaning the audience will be expected to join in. Lau explained that it is a complex task to weigh all of the parts against one another, especially when you add the congregation's voices to the mix.
   
"I never get tired of hearing my music performed," he said. An added bonus is another short piece of his also will have its premiere that night, played by conference chair Shirley King.
   
Mark Laubach is the performer in Wednesday night's big event at Pine Street Presbyterian Church. Jeremy Gill's "Eight Variations and Toccata on Bet Zet Yisrael" will have its first performance then. Jeremy Gill, now a successful Philadelphia-based conductor, composer and pianist, was once a student of Robert Lau.
   
I found Jeremy Gill on his mobile phone, on his way to a rehearsal with Mark Laubach in Wilkes-Barre. He pulled over, and we talked from a mountaintop about his new composition, inspired by his research on the history of the toccata. His inquiries took him back to early church psalm tones, in turn based on a traditional melodic fragment from the Jewish cantorial tradition.
   
The particular melody he chose is associated with Psalm 114, with its evocative, supernatural references to mountains skipping like rams, the sea fleeing and the earth trembling. Gill said he used these references programmatically in the piece, and in it you can hear the sounds of water falling, earth quaking and rams skipping, a kind of fantasy on the psalm itself.
   
The culmination of the convention is the appearance of Hector Olivera playing the famed organ at The Forum. Shirley King calls Olivera "a consummate performer, a fantastic musician, a charismatic personality who will hold the audience in the palm of his hand." Olivera's touring schedule includes recitals in England, Belgium, Holland and Mexico City, and his mass appeal will make a fantastic closing to the convention, King said.

IF YOU GO:

    * Multiple free organ recitals and concerts Monday through Thursday. More information and locations at harrisburgago.com.
    * Hector Olivera, organist, 8 p.m. June 30, The Forum, Fourth and Walnut streets, Harrisburg. Tickets: $20, 717-214-2787 or at the door.


Ellen Hughes, executive director of Market Square Concerts, writes on her experiences and observations about fine arts, classical music and performances in the area. Email her at arts.ellenhughes@gmail.com.

Eric
KB7DQH