Fort Collins - Colorado State University will once again host the popular Organ Week on June 8 – 13. For 2014, the teaching portion of the annual festival at Colorado State will be a collaborative event with the American Guild of Organists, becoming one of guild’s “Pipe Organ Encounter” locations.
The curriculum is designed for high school students interested in expanding (or beginning) their organ study. Led by a faculty of prominent concert and church organists, the program features one-to-one instruction, masterclasses, and recitals on the finest pipe organs in northern Colorado, including CSU’s Casavant organ.
Organ weeks have a long history at CSU since the years when Professor Robert Cavarra invited organists such as Marie-Claire Alain, Luigi Tagliavini, and Anton Heiller to give week long courses to capacity audiences. The festivals brought organ students from across the country, ideas were exchanged, insights were made, and great music filled the city!
Organ Week features nightly concerts, performed by world renowned soloists performing major solo and collaborative work, including a gala concert in conjunction with the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra.
Sunday, June 8, 7:30 p.m.
Gala Concert: American Concertos for Organ and Orchestra with the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra
Organ Recital Hall, University Center for the Arts
1400 Remington St., Fort Collins
Tickets: $10/CSU students, $20/public
Reception following
An evening of American organ music with four internationally acclaimed soloists and the Fort Collins Symphony, conducted by Wes Kenney. The concert features James David Christie, professor of organ at Oberlin University and organist with the Boston Symphony, performing two Samuel Barber works: Adagio for Strings, op. 11 and Toccata Festiva; Aaron David Miller’s Concerto for Two Organists and Orchestra, performed by Ken Cowan, one of North America’s finest concert organists, and Joel Bacon, CSU’s Stewart and Sheron Golden Chair of Organ and Liturgical Studies; and Variations on “America” by Charles Ives, performed by Joyce Jones, professor emerita of Baylor University.
Monday, June 9, 7:30 p.m.
Music for Organ and Brass
Joel Bacon, organ, with the Organ Week Brass Ensemble
1st United Methodist Church
1005 Stover St., Fort Collins
Tickets: FREE – donations will be accepted for Organ Week support.
CSU’s Stewart and Sheron Golden Chair of Organ and Liturgical Studies, Joel Bacon, presents an evening of organ masterworks. The ensemble features fifteen brass musicians and two percussionists, conducted by Dr. Richard Frey. Music will include Richard Strauss’ Feierlicher Einzug, Edward Elgar’s Nimrod (from Enigma Variations), and a transcription of the finale to the Camille Saint-Saën’s “Organ” Symphony no. 3.
Dr. Bacon holds degrees in mathematics and organ performance from Baylor University in Waco, TX, where he was a student of Joyce Jones, and an artist diploma in organ from the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien (Vienna, Austria), where he studied with Michael Gailit. With a dissertation on the use of organ in selected orchestral works, he earned his PhD in historical musicology through a joint degree program of Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts and the University of Vienna.
Tuesday, June 10, 1 p.m.
Joyce Jones Children’s Organ Program
First Presbyterian Church
531 S College Ave., Fort Collins
FREE – children of all ages welcome!
Dr. Jones introduces the “King of Instruments” to children (and children at heart!) in a creative and captivating way. Special video projection will ensure that everyone gets to see her legendary footwork — in pieces like the “Flight of the Bumblebee” — and watch her fingers fly through the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor by J.S. Bach.
Tuesday, June 10, 7:30 p.m.
James David Christie
University Center for the Arts
1400 Remington St.
Tickets: $7/CSU students, $12/public, $1/youth
Reception following
James David Christie is Chair and Professor of Organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, College Organist at Wellesley College and the Distinguished Artist in Residence at the College of the Holy Cross. In great demand as a recitalist, he performed last year in Iceland, Monaco, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Estonia. His solo recital features music of the Baroque, performed on CSU’s magnificent Casavant organ. Widely respected for his work in early music, Dr. Christie has performed with many period instrument orchestras, including the Academy of Ancient Music, the Bach Ensemble, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and others. He is also Music Director of Ensemble Abendmusik, a Boston-based period instrument orchestra and chorus specializing in sacred music of the 17th and 18th centuries. The program includes Bach’s Choral Preludes, as well as Dr. Christie’s own composition, Élégie, in memoriam: Jean Langlais.
Wednesday, June 11, 7:30 p.m.
Ken Cowan
First Presbyterian Church
531 S College Ave., Fort Collins
Tickets: FREE – donations will be accepted for Organ Week support.
Ken Cowan is one of North America’s finest concert organists. Praised for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique and imaginative programming by audiences and critics alike, he maintains a rigorous performing schedule which takes him to major concert venues and churches in America, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Ken will be joined on the program of works by Vitali, Dupré , and Barber by his wife Lisa Shihoten, combining forces on virtuoso works for violin and organ.
Thursday, June 12, 7:30 p.m.
Pipe Organ Encounter Student Recital
Organ Recital Hall, University Center for the Arts
1400 Remington St., Fort Collins
Tickets: FREE – donations will be accepted for Organ Week support.