Musical plans for this year

So I'm trying my best to make this year be the best it can musically. I've already arranged Robert Fertitta's organ concert at my church on April 29th, 2011, but there is still more to focus on!

Keeping in mind that I too am an organist and I need to keep up with learning as a performer, I've started work on Cesar Franck's Cantabile from Trois Pieces. It's a gorgeous piece and quite fun to play. The organ at my church does not have the resources to do it justice, so I'll have to perform it someplace else.

This reminds me that I'd like to play some concerts outside of Bloomsburg this summer. I've spoken with several people about the possibility of playing concerts in Richmond, Staunton, and Charlottesville, VA as well as in Indianapolis, Wilkes-Barre, Los Angeles and elsewhere. None of these plans are official, just speculation at this point, but I would love to do a few of them and the Cantabile would be great for them.

In the meantime, I'm working on several accompaniments for my school choir, to be played for our winter and spring concerts. After the spring concert, we have an annual Pops concert (always INCREDIBLY fun!), for which I'd like to accompany some solo on piano, or play piano myself as solo.

In terms of singing, my voice has really began to develop now that I've joined my school's regular choir and the 'Fusion' choir (a select choir), and my church choir. I auditioned for County and District chorus for Tenor 1 and made both of them!

Lots of music this year. I'll keep you all updated!

Organ Recital by Robert Fertitta

Organ virtuoso Robert Fertitta will be playing an organ concert of Bach, Clérambault, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Vierne and Fauré at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg at 7:30 PM on Friday, April 29th, 2010.

Mr. Fertitta received his musical education at Hunter College, Queens College, and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He also studied at l'Ecoles d'Art Americaines in Fountainbleau, France, where he was a student of the legendary Nadia Boulanger, herself a student of Gabriel Fauré. Mr. Fertitta is now retired after thirty years of teaching at Purchase College, but still plays concerts from time to time.

Mr. Fertitta's program:

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault
G Minor Suite
 
Johann Sebastian Bach
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier
Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland
Fantasie in G major

Louis Vierne
Clair de Lune (from Pieces de Fantaisie)
 
Gabriel Fauré
Nocturne No. 6 in D Flat Major [piano]
 
Camille Saint-Saëns
Prelude du Deluge
Two of the Sept Improvisations, Op. 150
 
Johannes Brahms
2 Chorale Preludes, from Op. 122
      - Mein Jesu, der du mich
      - O Gott, du frommer Gott
2 Intermezzos [piano]
      - C Sharp Minor, Op. 117 No. 3
      - A Major, Op. 118 No. 2
 
Felix Mendelssohn
Sonata No. 3 in A Major

All Chopin recital by Dr. Dylan Savage

Dr. Dylan Savage practicing before his concert

Dr. Dylan Savage, a Bloomsburg native with degrees in piano performance from Oberlin and Indiana State University, recently played a concert of the music of Chopin, in celebration of the 200th year since his birth, on our beautiful Blüthner concert grand piano at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg, PA.

Dr. Savage played several Valses, Preludes, Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Tarentelles, as well as Chopin's famous Berceuse Op. 57, Ballade no. 2 in F major Op. 38, and his beloved Polonaise 'Heroic' in A flat major Op. 53.

The concert was enjoyed by all in attendance. Truly gorgeous music played by a pianist of the very highest caliber... it was a night to remember. I was especially astonished at the sensitivity and charm in his performance of the Berceuse... utterly otherworldly.

What a great way to kick off a new year of great music at First Presbyterian in Bloomsburg!

Fantasiastic!

I've been working on several of Bach's keyboard Fantasias! I've just finished working on BWV 921, Fantasia in C minor, and am presently about halfway through learning BWV 922, Fantasia in A minor. I'll have video on youtube of these pieces sometime in August when I use them as offertories at First Presbyterian.

Harp Restoration: Part 1:

Yesterday the vintage 1930 Estey Harp unit in the organ at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg, PA was removed by a team from Patrick J. Murphy and Associates to be brought to their facilities for a much needed restoration. It should be reinstalled, better than ever(!), sometime in December, just in time for Christmas!

Here are some pictures of the removal of the old unit.

First, the 4 rows of mallets were removed.

The first order of business was to remove the mallets. There are 49 mallets divided into 4 rows. These mallets strike tuned plates via pneumatic contacts. From up close, the sound resembles a xylophone, but when the harp is in a chamber and the listener is out in the church, the affect is very convincing and actually sounds like a harp! Part of this is due to the wooden resonator pipes. These large, square, stopped, wooden pipes are attached to the unit, one per note. They are lined up against the tuned plates and help the sound to resonate (hence their name) this contributes to a realistic harp sound. Many organ harp units use metal resonators, however, wooden resonators create a warmer, more convincing affect.
After the four big, dusty rows of mallets were removed, the crew had to remove the four rows of tuned plates and resonators, this was the tricky part! The rows of plates and resonators are much larger and heavier than the mallets! It was a hot day, no air condition, and these three guys had to take very heavy, 80-year-old, pneumatically powered equipment through a small opening from a cramped room in the ceiling! All for music! All for music!

Row # 1

Row # 2

Row # 3

And finally, row #5, the largest component of the harp.

Close up on resonators

Close up on tuned plates

More music to come!

My ability as an organist is ever-improving. I see myself, and hear myself, improving more and more, faster and faster.

However, when I return to Bloomsburg from my two month stay in Indianapolis, I'm going to start focusing on some other kinds of musicianship as well. It's one thing to be proficient at playing great organ literature... but what is more important is to be proficient playing hymns, accompanying choirs, and working with the whole music program of a church. I'm not interested in being a concert organist; I want to be a church organist, a minister first, and a performer second.

With this in mind, in the coming months I am going to begin to participate in the bell choir at my church, play services more and more often, accompany the choir, and sing in the choir. My teacher and I agree that the best way to learn how best to accompany a choir is to sing in a choir!
I've been told to "look out!" because our Director, Mrs. Lapinski, is wanting to give me some "Serious choral training!". I'm very excited, I've always had an adoration and love for choral music of all periods and styles, and I've always marveled at how some of the greatest choirs in the world can be equally magnificent and polished in sound, but yet sound so remarkably different from one another!
I have a little over $400 left from my concert donations and I'm going to join the RSCMA as an independent member and I've already spoken with Mark Laubach, organist and director of choirs at Saint Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, about attending the RSCMA training course there in the Summer of 2011 (King's College Training Course).

I'm so excited thinking about all the ways I'll be growing as a musician in the next two years before I go to college! I am so blessed to belong to a wonderful congregation where the music staff isn't afraid to say "This'll do you good! You're in the choir now, no questions asked!", if only all churches could be such!
I will now be doing the following on a regular basis:

- Leading hymns for services on the organ
- Accompanying the choir on the organ and our Blüthner concert grand piano
- Singing in the choir
- Ringing in the bell choir
- Playing Introits, Offertories, and Postludes from time to time

I also hope to have at least one 90 minute solo organ concert this concert season, but my big goal is to have two. In addition to my own solo concert(s), I've spoken with a friend of mine, Robert Fertitta, about a 90 minute concert here in late Spring of 2011. Robert is a very esteemed organist who studied with the legendary Nadia Boulanger in France in 1972. Robert taught at the Purchase Conservatory for several decades.

It is my hope that as I learn and grow in the music program at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg, I will help the music program to grow as well. I believe that both I and the music program itself will benefit from one another. I can't wait to see what we'll be doing my senior year of High School!

AGO members recital

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of participating in an AGO members recital in Watsontown, PA. Nine organists, including myself, performed for an audience of about 32. The organ is a 23 rank, 32 stop Hook-Hastings rebuilt and tonally modified by Moller and later Parsons in 1995.

Here are some pictures from the event.

Above is the console to the 23 rank Hook-Hastings/Moller/Parsons organ. And to the right is the gorgeous organ case.