When St. Mark’s refurbished its organ nearly three years ago,
the tonal palette was
designed to enhance congregational singing. A happy result of the upgrade was that our
organ is also better suited as a solo instrument. We first heard some of its exciting features
in a hymn festival played by Aaron David Miller.
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| Dr. Peter DeWitt |
Thanks to a generous gift from Ruth Copeland, we will have
our second opportunity to hear our organ played as a solo instrument. Dr. Peter DeWitt will play a solo concert on
Sunday, January 15th, at 7:00 p.m.
The concert will feature music by J. S. Bach, Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt,
and Spanish composers whose music was prominent during the founding of the city
of St. Augustine.
Peter DeWitt recently retired after 37 years as professor of
music and theory at Shorter College in Rome, GA where he also served as the
college organist. During that time he performed more than 100 times both as
soloist and collaborator as organist, harpsichordist, pianist, singer and actor
throughout the Southeast. He also performed in Germany, France, Scandinavia,
Russia, England and Spain. In 2000, he presented the complete Clavierubungs of
Bach in a series of five concerts. He is a past president of the South Eastern
Historical Keyboard Society, past treasurer of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra,
and an active member of the Jacksonville chapter of the American Guild of
Organists. He is the chair of the
Jacksonville AGO’s upcoming regional convention in July of 2017. He is especially proud of the numerous awards
won by his students in organ and composition.
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| Our Zimmer-Colby Organ |
