AGO Wednesday

Wednesday started the way every day should start - with a service of Matins (Morning Prayer) sung by the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral all the way from London, England. It was a service of organ and choral music with works by Howells, Bairstow, Vaughn Williams, Walton, Elgar and others. The service was held at the Basilica of St. Mary whose acoustics (already discussed) were extremely favorable to English choral music.

The next event was at Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church on its 1979 Sipe organ. This was an enjoyable concert by Todd Wilson who is head of the organ department at The Cleveland Institute of Music, with my favorite piece being one for organ and french horn - Calvin Hampton's Variations on Amazing Grace. The french horn was played by Merilee Kemp.

Then we were off to St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral where we heard perhaps my favorite concert of the week. The original organ was built by Welte (1928) then added to by Moller (1964) and Gould and Sons (1976, 1983). This is an organ whose low tones reverberate in your very soul! The concert was played by Peter Sykes with assistance from Victoria Wagner. They played selections from a transcription of Gustav Holst's The Planets. This piece is generally played by one organist in a normal layout but at some points an additional organist is needed to play one line. In Neptune "at one moment all four manuals and pedal, with four hands, two feet, and even a pencil holding a long note" is required. This was an incredible concert, but it ran a little long so I missed the workshop that afternoon. . . .IT WAS WORTH IT!!

The next event was the annual meeting at which election results were given. Eileen Guenther, DMA became the new president and John Walker, FAGO, DMA became the new vice president.

Finally, that evening we boarded the bus for Wooddale Presbyterian Church where we participated in a recording of Pipe Dreams, the radio show of organ music that is hosted by Michael Barone. The concert had a great deal of variety with many well-known organists but two that I'd never heard of before: Barbara Dennerlein wowed all of us with her jazz improvisation (truly, incredible!) and Isabelle Demers amazed us with Stephen Paulus' As If The Whole Creation Cried, from Triptych. We also heard Ken Cowan, Aaron David Miller, Scott Montgomery, Douglas Reed, Herndon Spillman, and Calvn Taylor. I was really exhausted that night and came very close to skipping this event. . .but I'm sooooo glad I went.

Top Left: The organ at Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church Middle: The facade of St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral (The organ pipes were mostly not visible.)

Bottom: The organ at Wooddale Presbyterian Church