Alan Morrison Recital Recap

On May 1, the chapter presented a recital played by Alan Morrison at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Baltimore. This recital was the final recital in the Baltimore Chapter’s program year and featured an organ originally built in 1860 by the Boston firm of W.D.B Simmons and rebuilt/enlarged in the 1930s. In 2010, Patrick J. Murphy & Associates completely rebuilt the instrument, making tonal changes intended to move the organ back toward the spirit of the 1860 instrument. The result is an instrument with 35 ranks distributed over 3 manuals, installed within the original case. The organ speaks into a visually and acoustically stunning room and was it was played magnificently by Alan. Alan’s program featured works by Jonathan Dove, Amy Beach, Florence Price, César Franck, and Jeanne Demessieux. Also included was the “Tamborine” by Harold Stover (a friend of both Alan and his mother, pianist Jeannine Morrison) and “Frolicking Flutes” by Baltimore composer Thomas Kerr. The day before the recital, Alan (who teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music just up the road from Baltimore) led a masterclass for students from the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.