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Ars Organi II: Jay Peterson honors Anton Heiller (Oct. 4)

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by Timothy Robson

Chicago-based organist Jay Peterson, a former student of Anton Heiller (left), continued St. Paul’s Episcopal Church’s Ars Organi II series on Friday night, October 4. The recital was the first in a three-event mini series devoted to Heiller, the great Viennese organist, composer, and pedagogue who lived from 1923 to 1979. A panel discussion about Heiller on Saturday afternoon featured Peterson, Ars Organi mastermind Karel Paukert, and Oberlin Conservatory visiting organ professor Christa Rakich, also a Heiller student, who played a recital on Sunday afternoon. [Read more…]

Karel Paukert presents Ars Organi II at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights

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by Daniel Hathaway

Organist Karel Paukert said in a recent telephone conversation that he often runs into people who tell him they miss the organ recitals he used to give during his tenure as curator of musical arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art. “I tell them, well just come to St. Paul’s.”

Paukert is referring to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, where he continues to serve as organist and choirmaster after retiring from the Museum. He plays occasional Sunday afternoon recitals there on the church’s two organs — the 1952 Holtkamp instrument at the front of the nave, and the 1986 Hradetzky Italian Baroque-style instrument in the back gallery.

Last fall, he launched a mini-festival of music for organ, voice, and instruments called Ars Organi. The second edition of that festival will span seven free events from September 29 through October 20.

The first concert on Sunday, September 29 at 4:00 pm will feature saxophonist Noa Even, who heads up new music activities at Kent State University. [Read more…]

Simultaneous organ recitals by Isabelle Demers & James Higdon on opposite sides of Fairmount (Sep. 24)

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by Daniel Hathaway

DemersConflicts abound in Northeast Ohio’s concert schedule, but not so often do two enticing organ recitals take place at the same hour right across the street from one another. Given the choice of Isabelle Demers’ recital at Fairmount Presbyterian and James Higdon’s all-Alain program at St. Paul’s on September 24, what to do? I decided to catch part of both programs. [Read more…]

Ars Organi at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights: Christie reveals secrets of the Italian organ (Sep. 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Christie-James-DavidFor his contribution to the Ars Organi Festival at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights on September 19, Oberlin professor James David Christie was charged with demonstrating the eloquent musical possibilities of the North Italian-style Baroque organ built by Gerhard Hradetzky in 1986 for the rear gallery of the nave. Not only did he place the instrument in its historical-liturgical context — with the help of Steven Plank and a group of women’s voices from the Oberlin Collegium Musicum — but he went far beyond a history lesson to show how delightful music by nine composers of the period can be when matched up with the right instrument. [Read more…]

Ars Organi at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights: two recitals by Jaroslav Tůma (Sep. 15 & 16)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Tuma-JaroslavKarel Paukert invited his longtime friend and fellow Czech organist Jaroslav Tůma to open his ambitious Ars Organi series at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights with two recitals last weekend. The purpose of the seven-event festival is to celebrate the church’s music program and its distinguished collection of keyboard instruments. On Friday evening, September 15, Tůma took each of those four instruments out for a spin, and on Saturday afternoon, September 16, demonstrated his command of the art of improvisation in an hour-long program of symphonic scope. [Read more…]

Paukert plans Ars Organi to celebrate music program at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Hts.

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by Daniel Hathaway

PAUKERT-KarelBoth during his tenure as curator of musical arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1974-2004), and since 1979 as organist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Karel Paukert has combined unerring musical taste with an uncanny ability to acquire splendid keyboard instruments. The three organs and harpsichord owned by St. Paul’s will be the subject of Ars Organi, a seven-event festival beginning on September 15 that matches the instruments with the particular interests of some of Paukert’s colleagues, friends, and students.

“I don’t want to say this is my swan song,” Paukert said in a telephone conversation,  “but I want to pay homage to St. Paul’s Church and its generous donors with this festival. They have maintained this music program all the way back to Walter Blodgett, who was kind of a legend here.”

St. Paul’s Church moved to the Heights from 40th and Euclid in 1928, but the Great Depression and World War II delayed its building plans beyond the construction of a parish hall until 1952. [Read more…]

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