As part of the 100th Anniversary of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Kissimmee, the choir will present the Requiem of Gabriel Faure in concert and in memory of all the members of the parish who have died.
11/04/2012
From: 4:00 – To: 5:00 pm
Holy Redeemer Catholic Church
1603 N. Thacker Ave.Kissimmee, FL
I had my first organ lesson at Woodland Presbyterian Church during the fall of my freshman year of high school. The instrument is Op. 758 of the Austin Organ Co. from 1917 with some revisions in the 1980’s by Milnar Organ Co. Though I haven’t played regularly at Woodland for over twenty years, because my parents are still active members there, I still get to stop by and play the instrument when I go home to visit. This time, we brought along a video camera and recorded a few repertoire selections. Below is a piece by American composer Dan Locklair: “The Peace may be exhanged.” from Rubrics.
I don’t think I could be more happy with how the performance turned out. Sarah Whittemore, the Basilica Choir, and orchestra all did a wonderful job with the psalm! Listen to the live performance below to hear for yourself.
Read about how this piece came to be here.
Event Description:The final event of the Central Florida chapter of the American Guild of Organists is a dinner, installation ceremony and concert. I will be installed as the new Dean of the chapter that evening. After dinner, our host, Tom De Witt, has planned a Festive concert for everyone to enjoy.
05/15/2012
Dinner from: 6:00 – To: 7:30pm
Concert begins at 7:30
Morrison United Methodist Church1005 West Main Street Leesburg FL
For the Mozart Coronation Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, Dr. William Picher asked if I’d like to collaborate on the musical setting of the psalm to be used at Mass that evening. Since most of the music for Mass is by Mozart, he had found a phrase from a Mozart string quintet to use as the refrain and asked if I’d write music for the verses. Bill has used several of my psalm settings previously, so was looking for a simple tone much like those I’ve sent him previously.
After having a look at the last movement of K. 516 that Bill used for the refrain, I found a portion of the string quintet that lent itself as a nice chord progression for the psalm verses. Knowing that there would at least be strings available, it made sense to me to create an entire orchestration for the composition. A recording of the live performance is now available here.
This is a second video with excerpts from wedding music selections. It offers some alternative traditional selections. I made these two videos for couples who are preparing to get married at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, especially those who reside out of town. The first video presents the most popular traditional music options.
Listed below are some of the articles The Evangelist published while I was in Albany.
Here’s a clip from the recent Vierne concert at St. James Cathedral.
Dividing the organ into the grande orgue and orgue de choeur proved to be challenging. While planning for the installation of the instrument, this was one of the pieces that I envisioned performing in order to work out all the little details necessary for the two consoles to function at the same time. How thrilling it was to actually hear the piece come to life. Thanks to David Brunner, Ben Lane, the CFAGO and all the singers for making this vision a reality.
Kyrie from Messe Solennelle by Louis Vierne from Karen Osborne on Vimeo.
The audio is from the in-camera microphones. Once I get the professional audio, I’ll update this with better sound.
Written by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609), Vexilla Regis is one of the great chant hymns of the church. Appropriately sung at vespers from Passion Sunday until Holy Thursday, on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross and even on Good Friday, the hymn was originally written to celebrate the arrival of a large relic of the True Cross in Poitiers, France.
In the French Classical tradition when singing hymns, the organ alternated verses with the choir. Having always enjoyed the sounds of the French Classical organs, when I had the opportunity to play a recital at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, NY on Palm Sunday, I decided to write a suite for organ on this great hymn of the cross. The suite contains six movements and uses traditional tonal language and registrations of the period.
Vexilla Regis
This is the first of two short videos on YouTube with excerpts from some of the most popular wedding music selections. I made these two videos for couples who are preparing to get married at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, especially those who reside out of town. The first presents the most popular traditional music options. The second video will offer some alternative traditional selections.