November 2019
Dear colleagues,
It was a delight to see so many members at last month’s event at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church! All were treated to a stunning recital by Clara Gerdes, a first-year master’s degree student of Martin Jean at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, Connecticut. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2019 where she studied with Alan Morrison and served as organ scholar at Saint Mark’s Church. The engaging, varied program showed off, to the fullest, the wonderful 2005, 38-stop Patrick J. Murphy organ which, for an organ of its size, offers remarkable versatility. Clara’s flawless technique was exceeded only by her impressive musicianship, a characteristic rare in many youthful performers. Playing all but one piece from memory, she dazzled the appreciative audience with her creative, colorful registrations from the opening of the Prelude and Fugue in B Major by Dupré to the closing measures of the Sonata on the 94th Psalm by Reubke and everything in between. As the newly appointed Assistant Organist of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, New York, this is an artist with an encouraging, bright future. Special thanks to Sean O’Connor and Joe Martenczuk for providing hospitality and to Jim Harp and the staff of St. Mark’s for hosting and for the beautiful, tasty reception which followed.
As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday with services of harvest and thanksgiving, I would like to share with you a number of resources for organ music appropriate to those occasions. Aside from a number of obvious and more well-known works such as the settings of Nun danket, by Bach and Karg-Elert, many struggle to find additional pieces for this season. To that end, I have compiled a list, though not complete, of resources for your consideration. In many of these collections, you might find one or two pieces which are useful in your situation. I commend these to you with the hope that it may be helpful.
Most of all, I send best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving suggesting that you take time to reflect on the many blessings in your life.
The November 2019 Issue of the Pipe and Pedal is now available.