New $10 Summer Organ Series Every Wednesday at the Kimmel Center Begins July 11 with Organist Stephen Tharp
July 2, 2007
Stephen Tharp, Sean Jackson, Barbara Dennerlein, Ken Cowan
(clockwise from top left)
This summer cool down from Philly’s summer heat by listening to the rich, tonal textures of The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ. Beginning Wednesday, July 11 at 7pm in Verizon Hall with internationally renowned organist Stephen Tharp, The Kimmel Center will host a new series of Summer Organ recitals. The one-month long, low cost, Wednesday night series will also showcase organists Sean Jackson on Wednesday, July 18 at 7pm; Ken Cowan on Wednesday, July 25 at 7pm; and "German Jazz Organ Ambassador" Barbara Dennerlein on Wednesday, August 1 at 7pm. Each concert is approximately 75 minutes without an intermission. Tharp’s program includes: Henri Mulet’s Tu es Petrus; Edward Elgar’s Nimrod from Enigma Variations, Op. 36; Felix Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonata No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 65; Louis Vierne’s Naïades from Piéces de Fantaisie, Op 55; David Briggs, Toccata Labyrinth; Louis Vierne, Symphonie No. 5 in A Minor, Op. 47; Anthony Newman, Toccata and Fuga Sinfonica on BACH; and Igor Stravinsky’s The Fair from Petrouchka.
"We are pleased to announce that the Summer Organ Series will make The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ even more accessible to our urban audiences," says Kimmel Center’s Vice President of Programming Mervon Mehta. "Some of the best organists in the region and internationally will be showcased this summer on our marvelous instrument for a very moderate price. It’s a great way for people to experience the Kimmel Center during the summer heat and to enjoy some wonderful artists!"
Tickets for the Summer Organ Series are $10 for general admission to each Wednesday 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.
Former organist and director of Cathedral Concerts at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Stephen Tharp is currently Artist-in-Residence at St. Peter’s Historic Church, Perth Amboy, N.J., the oldest Episcopal church in the state. Having already played 28 solo intercontinental tours and more than 800 North American concerts, Tharp has built one of the broadest and most well-respected international careers in the world, receiving critical acclaim around the globe. Tharp has performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London; Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris; The Hong Kong Cultural Centre; the Town Hall in Sydney; Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow; Cologne Cathedral; and, The Gewandhaus Leipzig, to name a few.
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.
Ken Cowan is associate organist of the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ and the Professor of Organ at the Westminster Choir College. One of the most sought-after organists in North America, he has performed solo recitals across the United States and Canada, and has won numerous awards, including first prizes at the Royal Canadian College of Organists National Competition and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music National Competition. A native of Thorold, Ontario, Canada, Cowan received his Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray. Prior to attending Yale, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with John Weaver. His most recent release is The Art of the Symphonic Organist (JAV Label), which was recorded on the 1921 E. M. Skinner organ at the Parish of St. Luke in Evanston, Illinois.
Barbara Dennerlein, "The German Jazz Ambassador," is frequent award winner of Downbeat Critics Poll. Known at fifteen years-old as a jazz playing organist prodigy, Dennerlein has forged a path for herself as Germany’s most important and successful jazz export. Dennerlein’s brilliant playing technique, creative, innovative and distinctive style have opened up new musical dimensions for the Hammond organ. She has given concert tours in Europe, U.S. and Japan, and she has performed at famous jazz clubs like New York’s Blue Note and Sweet Basils, London’s Jazz Café and Ronnie Scott’s, and at the Meridien in Paris. "To me, jazz is a synonym for freedom. For the absence of prejudice and discrimination, the absence of obligation and convention. This is my definition of jazz, which I want to convey to the listener. Whether young or old, traditionalist or modernist, jazz fan or non-jazz fan."
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 2007/2008 season is sponsored by Citi. Support for individual series and concerts is provided 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, PNC 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.
Summer Organ Series is generously funded by John McFadden, Esq.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 | 7pm
Verizon Hall, The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ
Summer Organ Series
Stephen Tharp, organ
HENRI MULET: Tu es Petrus (Thou art the Rock), from Esquisses Byzantines (1919)
EDWARD ELGAR: Nimrod from Enigma Variations, Op. 36,
FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Organ Sonata No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 65, No. 2
LOUIS VIERNE: Naïades, from Pièces de Fantaisie, Op 55
DAVID BRIGGS: Toccata Labyrinth (2006)*
LOUIS VIERNE: Symphonie No. 5 in A Minor, Op. 47
ANTHONY NEWMAN: Toccata and Fuga Sinfonica on BACH (1999)*
IGOR STRAVINSKY: The Fair, from Petrouchka (1911)
*Works commissioned by and dedicated to Stephen Tharp.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 | 7pm
Verizon Hall, The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ
Summer Organ Series
Sean Jackson, organ
Program to be posted at www.kimmelcenter.org
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 | 7pm
Verizon Hall, The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ
Summer Organ Series
Ken Cowan, organ
Program to be posted at www.kimmelcenter.org
Wednesday, August 1, 2007 | 7pm
Verizon Hall, The Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ
Summer Organ Series
Barbara Dennerlein, organ
Jazz improvisation
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