This program celebrates the beauty of Bach’s organ works on an instrument perfectly suited to them, the Phelps organ of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. In addition to famous solo works, the program will include Bach’s C Minor Violin Sonata, BWV 1017, played by violinist Lisa Shihoten. Joel Bacon will perform two “new” works, recently attributed to Bach in November 2025: the Ciacona in D minor (BWV 1178) and the Ciacona in G minor (BWV 1179).
Location: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 2000 Stover St., Fort Collins CO.
Joel Bacon is the Stewart and Sheron Golden Chair of Organ and Liturgical Studies and the Fr. Don Willette Chair of Catholic Studies at Colorado State University. In 2026 he was named a University Distinguished Professor. As a concert organist, his recent performances have focused on music by W. A. Mozart, Herman Berlinski, and Petr Eben, as well as works for organ and orchestra. His teaching and research are centered on topics related to Catholicism and the creative arts, especially Gregorian chant. He has performed throughout Europe and North America, and his performances have been broadcast on Austrian Radio and Public Radio International. He has played with numerous orchestras and chamber groups, including the Borromeo String Quartet and the Canadian Brass. From 2008 to 2020 he conducted the St. John XXIII Schola Cantorum, a choir specializing in Gregorian chant. He is currently organist and artist in residence at First United Methodist Church, Fort Collins.
Regarded as one of North America’s finest concert organists and praised for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique, and imaginative programming by audiences and critics alike, Ken Cowan maintains a rigorous performing schedule that takes him to major concert venues in America, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
Recent feature performances have included appearances at Princeton University Chapel, The Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia PA, San Francisco CA for the American Guild of Organists national convention, Baltimore MD for the Organ Historical Society’s national convention, Maison Symphonique in Montreal Canada, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Upcoming performances include recitals in Groton MA, Birmingham AL, Bethesda MD, Chestertown MD, Atlanta GA, Brevard NC, Fort Worth TX, and a performance for the Elgar Society’s gathering in Northeast Ohio
Numerous critically acclaimed compact disc recordings by Mr. Cowan are available. Most recent, with Mr. Cowan serving as organ accompanist, is Maurice Duruflé: Complete Choral Works (Signum Records), recorded with Robert Simpson and the Houston Chamber Choir, for which the Houston Chamber Choir was awarded a GRAMMY award in 2020 for Best Choral Recording. Also available is Dynamic Duo, (Pro Organo), featuring Mr. Cowan and Bradley Hunter Welch in a program of original works and transcriptions for duo organists performed on the monumental Casavant organ at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. Other recordings include Ken Cowan plays The Great Organ (Pro Organo), recorded on the newly-restored organ at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City; Works of Franz Liszt (JAV), recorded on the Michael Quimby organ at First Baptist church in Jackson Mississippi; and Ken Cowan Plays Romantic Masterworks (Raven), recorded on the 110-rank Schoenstein organ at First Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mr. Cowan also joined organist Justin Bischof in the 1999 world-premiere recording of American composer Aaron Miller’s Double Concerto for organ, recorded with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra on the Kleuker organ in the Tonhalle, Zurich, Switzerland (Ethereal Recordings). Many of Mr. Cowan’s recordings and live performances have been regularly featured on the nationally distributed radio program PIPEDREAMS from American Public Media.
A native of Thorold, Ontario, Canada, Mr. Cowan received the Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray. Prior to attending Yale, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with John Weaver. Following initial studies with his father, David, his principal teacher during his high school years was James Bigham, Music Director at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in Buffalo, NY.
In 2012 Mr. Cowan joined the keyboard faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he continues to serve as Professor of Organ and head of the organ program. He is additionally Organist and Artist-in-Residence at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, TX. Previous positions have included Associate Professor of Organ at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ, where he was awarded the 2008 Rider University Distinguished Teaching Award, and Associate Organist and Artist in Residence at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City.
A member of the critically acclaimed Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Lisa Shihoten is an active and significant presence in New York City’s classical music scene. A graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale University, she made her Avery Fisher Hall debut in 1995 performing Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with The Juilliard Orchestra under Kurt Masur. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Shihoten has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, and in Caramoor’s Rising Stars series. She has won the Grand Prize at the Marcia Polayes National Violin Competition and the Aspen Music Festival’s Nakamichi Competition, as well as top prizes from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and the Seventeen (magazine)/General Motors National Competition. Her former teachers include Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki and Peter Oundjian.
She is married to organist Ken Cowan and was teaching violin at Princeton University, also a guest instructor at the Betty Haag Academy of Music in Chicago, where she works with her childhood violin teacher, Betty Haag-Kuhnke.
She is currently a faculty violin instructor at the Michael P. Hammond Preparatory Program at Rice University in Houston.
