Kimmel Center Presents Celebrates the One Year Anniversary of The Renowned Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ with Organ Family Concert and Organ Recital Marathon at the Kimmel Center May 5
April 23, 2007
The "King of Instruments" Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ was hailed "a versatile 6,938-pipe beast with wide tonal palette and…heft…" by the Wall Street Journal during the inaugural organ concerts in 2006. This year the Kimmel Center celebrates the organ’s one year anniversary with an Organ Family Concert at 11am followed by an Organ Recital Marathon at 1pm in Verizon Hall on Saturday, May 5, 2007. The Organ Family Concert features organist Alan Morrison performing alongside Rodney Mack’s Philadelphia Big Brass to present a diverse program ranging from Renaissance music to exuberant jazz with works from Gabrielli to Callahan, from Strauss’ 2001: A Space Odyssey to Bill Conti’s "Fanfare from ‘Rocky." The four-hour Organ Recital Marathon follows and features four internationally acclaimed organists. Sean Jackson, Matthew Glandorf, Shelly Moorman-Stahlman, and Wesley Parrott will present a diverse program of organ-performed works of Bach, Walton, Widor, Ireland, Gigout, Mulet, Ives, Albright, Hampton, Locklair, Eggert, Durufle, Hindemith and Tournemire.
Tickets for Organ Family Concert and Organ Recital Marathon are $20 for each concert, and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Alan Morrison is recognized as one of America’s premier concert organists and has made extensive solo and orchestra performances in some of the most prestigious organ concert venues in North America, as well as having performed in Brazil, Canada, Germany and Italy. He has the distinct honor of having been chosen by his peers to perform for four national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (Atlanta ’92, NYC ’96, Philadelphia ’02, Chicago ’06) and has won top prizes in numerous competitions, among them the Silver Medal at the Calgary International Organ Festival and First Prize in both the Mader and Poister National Organ Competitions. As a recording artist, Morrison has recorded eight critically acclaimed CDs for Gothic Records, ACA Digital Recording and DTR. These and other concert performances are regularly featured on MPR’s Pipedreams, Performance Today and on radio stations throughout many countries His latest CD from Spivey Hall features all American composers.
Fanfare has said of Alan Morrison: "…He knows something about igniting audience passions. Without hesitation and throughout, Morrison’s playing is consummate and dazzling…"
A Louisiana native, Rodney Mack began taking classical lessons with his cousin Wynton Marsalis at age eleven, and debuted his solo career at the age of fifteen with the New Orleans Symphony. The sound of Rodney Mack’s trumpet has reverberated throughout the world. His artistry has been enthusiastically enjoyed in the United States, France, Spain, Germany, England, Greece, Rumania, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mack has worked under the guidance of world-renowned conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gerard Schwarz, and James DePreist. He was awarded a fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was invited to return for a second summer during which he was awarded the Seiji Ozawa Award for Outstanding Musicianship. He has made several world premiere recordings including Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Adolphus Hailstork and In Our Own House by Alvin Singleton with saxophonist Branford Marsalis and concert pianist Karen Walwyn.
Regarding Mack’s best selling solo CD Spirit of the Trumpeter, cornet virtuoso and renowned conductor Gerard Schwarz says, "Rodney Mack is a superb trumpet player and musician. I have no doubt that this CD will make an important addition to the catalogue of sublime trumpet performances."
The Rodney Mack Philadelphia Big Brass is a collection of Philadelphia’s top brass and percussion players who regularly perform with the area’s most prestigious musical organizations including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Delaware Symphony, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, and The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Performing a variety of musical styles from Renaissance to Jazz, the members of The Philadelphia Big Brass are widely sought out for the majestic sounds and sparkling, virtuoso performances they bring to each and every concert.
Matthew Glandorf has an active career as a conductor, educator, organist, church musician, and composer. Prior to his 2004 appointment as artistic director of the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, he served as director of music in numerous Philadelphia churches, including historic Old St. Joseph’s, Old Pine Street Presbyterian, and Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion. He was also the conductor of In Clara Voce, a chamber choir devoted to the performance of early and contemporary music. Glandorf now serves as organist at St. Mark’s Church in Philadelphia. Raised in Germany, he received early instruction on the organ at the Bremen Cathedral with Wolfgang Baumgratz. At the age of 16, he entered The Curtis Institute of Music as a student of John Weaver and Ford Lallerstedt. He pursued graduate studies with McNeil Robinson at the Manhattan School of Music. He has served on the faculties of Swarthmore College and Westminster Choir College and has been featured on several recordings, including, most recently, Philadelphia Organbuilder on the Raven label. Glandorf joined the faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music in 1995.
Organist and pianist Dr. Sean Jackson is a Doctoral graduate of The Juilliard School in New York, where he also received his Master of Music degree in 1999. A native of Barbados in the Caribbean, Dr. Jackson left his homeland in 1992 to pursue a Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal College of Music in London. Since then he has performed in other West Indian islands, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Germany, Taiwan, Canada, and the United States. Dr. Jackson spent six years as assistant organist at Trinity Episcopal Church on Wall Street in New York, where he recorded with the Trinity Choir on the Naxos label. In August, 2004 he assumed duties as director of music at the St. John’s Episcopal Church, Stamford, Conn. where he recently recorded and launched his debut CD, Sean Jackson Plays Organ Favorites: Volume I.
Shelly Moorman-Stahlman is Associate Professor of Music at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., where she teaches organ, piano, class piano, form and analysis and church music courses. Her students have received top honors in numerous competitions. Dr. Moorman-Stahlman holds degrees of Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Iowa. A frequent recitalist throughout the Midwest and East Coast, she has garnered an impressive array of competition credits, which include semi-finalist at the St. Albans International Organ Competition in England; audience prize at Spivey International Organ Competition and finalist in the Arthur Poister Competition, Second prize in the MTNA National Wurlitzer Competition and Finalist, Region VI AGO Competition. She has been a featured artist at major venues in Washington D.C., New York City and across the Midwest.
Wesley Parrott began piano study with Gilda Saddoff, a student of the legendary Olga Samaroff. At age 14, Wesley entered the Curtis Institute of Music, studying organ with Alexander McCurdy, Jr. and later with John Weaver until graduating from Curtis in 1974. He graduated from Sewanee with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a Major in Music in 1980. In 1982 Wesley earned a Maser of Music degree, with a major in Performance and Literature from Eastman School of Music of The University of Rochester, Rochester N.Y. An active member of the Philadelphia community, Wesley serves on the local boards of the West Philadelphia Branch of The Settlement Music School, and The Washington Square West Historic District. He is a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and The Franklin Inn Club. He served as Organist and Choirmaster at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia (1986-1997) and now is Organist/Director of Music at the Church of St. Mary’s at The Cathedral in Roxboro, Philadelphia. Wesley has recorded on The Organ Historical Society label. He sings in several local choirs, including Voces Novae et Antiquae.
The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ debuted in Verizon Hall in May 2006 with a two week festival of concerts to sold out audiences and much critical acclaim. Wall Street Journal has said of The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ: "…the 32 ton, $6.4 million instrument, heard last week in the opening concerts of a two-week inaugural festival that continues this weekend, is a versatile 6,938-pipe beast with a wide tonal palette and enough heft to compete with a symphony orchestra at full throttle;" The New York Times has said: "And it does create a glorious ruckus, yet one that- to judge from the blast that opened the finale of Saint-Saens’s Third Symphony on Friday- the hall can comfortably contain."
Kimmel Center Presents' 2006/2007 season is supported by: Mellon Financial Corporation, University of Pennsylvania Health System, National Endowment for the Arts, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, ARC Wheeler, The William Penn Foundation, The Wachovia Foundation, Verizon Foundation, The Presser Foundation, Philadelphia Music Project and Dance Advance, Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trust administered by The University of the Arts. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Jazz and World Pop programming. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents. The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com are media sponsors for the Great Orchestras on Tour series.
FREE AT THE KIMMEL events are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program supported by a generous grant from Wachovia Foundation.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS
Saturday, May 5, 2007 | 11am
Verizon Hall, The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ
Master Organ Recital Series
Organ Family Concert
Alan Morrison, organ
Rodney Mack’s Philadelphia Big Brass
Rodney Mack, trumpet
Paul Bryan, Conductor
Tom Cook, trumpet
Wayne DuMaine, trumpet
Brian Kuszyk, trumpet
Jose Sibaja, trumpet
Heather Johnson, horn
Jeff Scott, horn
Larry Williams, horn
Robert Gale, trombone
David Jackson, trombone
Darrin Milling, trombone
David Murray, trombone
Matt Brown, tuba
Carol Jantch, tuba
Harvey Price, percussion
Bill Wozniack, timpani
Rebecca Karr, soprano, special guest
STRAUSS: Also Spracht Zarathustra (2001: A Space Odyssey)
GABRIELLI: Canzon Septimi Toni No. 2
GABRIELLI: Canzon in Double Echo
CALLAHAN: Fanfares and Riffs
BERNSTEIN: I Hate Music with Rebecca Karr, soprano
ARBAN: Carnival of Venice
ROSSINI: The Barber of Seville
FRANCIS JOHNSON: The Philadelphia Fireman's Anniversary Parade March
TRADITIONAL: Closer Walk
RAPHAEL MENDEZ: La Virgin de la Macerena
BILL CONTI: Fanfare from "Rocky"
Saturday, May 5, 2007 | 1pm
Verizon Hall, The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ
Master Organ Recital Series
Organ Marathon Recital
Sean Jackson, organ
Matthew Glandorf, organ
Shelly Moorman-Stahlman, organ
Wesley Parrott, organ
Sean Jackson, organ
WALTON: Crown Imperial (Coronation March 1937)
BACH: Sonata No. 1 in E-flat Major, BWV 525 III. Alegro
BACH: Fugue in G Major “Gigue,” BWV577
WIDOR: Scherzo from Symphony No. 4 in F major, Op. 13, No. 4
IRELAND: Elegiac Romance
GIGOUT: Grand Choeur Dialogue from Pieces
MULET: Carillon Sortie
Matthew Glandorf, organ
A Series of Improvised Portraits:
Praeludium in the Style of Dietrich Buxtehude
Sonata in the Style of Edward Elgar
Symphonic Improvisation in French Style on "Veni Creator Spiritus," with members of The Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia
Shelly Moorman-Stahlman, organ
IVES: Variations on "America" (1891)
ALBRIGHT: Sweet Sixteenths: A Concert Rag for Organ
HAMPTON: Five Dances: The Primitives; At the Ballet; Those Americans; Everyone Dance
LOCKLAIR: Rubrics (1988)
EGGERT: Mycenaue: Graveshaft V (1998)
Wesley Parrott: organ
BACH: Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544
WIDOR: I. Allegro vivace (From Symphonie V) Op. 42, No. 5 en Fa
DURUFLE: Prelude et Fugue sur le nom d’A.L.A.I.N, Op.7 (1942)
HINDEMITH: Sonate II (1937) I. Lebhaft; II. Ruhig bewegt; III. Fuge Mäßig bewegt, heiter
TOURNEMIRE: Choral-Improvisation sur le "victimæ paschali" (Cinq Improvisations pour Orgue reconsituées par Maurice Duruflé)
FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENT
Saturday, May 5, 2007 |11:30am
Commonwealth Plaza Stage
Montgomery County Youth Orchestra
The Montgomery County Youth Orchestra will perform prior to the Organ Recital Marathon on the Commonwealth Plaza Stage.
UPCOMING FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENT
Sunday, May 6, 2007 |11am
Commonwealth Plaza Stage
New Horizon Glee Club
This popular local Glee Club will perform a special program of "Senior American Idol."
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