by Timothy Robson
Christa Rakich, currently Visiting Professor of Organ at Oberlin Conservatory, played an intriguing and unusual program on Sunday afternoon at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron. The concert was presented in a “hybrid” format for an in-person as well as an at-home audience.
by Daniel Hathaway
The second concert in the Arts at Holy Trinity series in Akron will be an organ recital by Oberlin Visiting Professor Christa Rakich on Sunday, October 4 at 4:00 pm. It’s a hybrid event that you can either attend in person — following the usual health protocols — or watch on Holy Trinity Lutheran Church’s live stream.
I caught up with the jovial recitalist in her Oberlin studio to talk about her wide-ranging selection of pieces, each of which comes with a story or a personal connection attached. Noting that she’s going to be playing settings of Vom Himmel hoch, In dulci jubilo, and Puer natus in Bethlehem, I suggested that she’s getting ready to celebrate Christmas early.
“Most organists do. Our heads are in the coming season and not really in the present. We’re all thinking about how we’re going to handle Advent and Christmas during the pandemic.”
Rakich said that her discovery of a piece by David Arcus, an Oberlin grad who went on to teach at Duke, was the springboard for the opening set of the program. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Do you enjoy pub crawls for comparing the ambiance of different watering holes? Organ crawls can be just as pleasurable for organophiles — who often combine bending the ear and the elbow to double the fun. Now that the pesky coronavirus has crashed the party, moving about in groups from one venue to another is not in the cards for the foreseeable future, but thanks to the faculty of the Oberlin Summer Organ Academy, you can at least take a virtual tour of some of the Conservatory’s impressive instruments and hear them played in two online programs on Thursday and Friday.
On June 25 at 7:30 pm, organ professors Jonathan Moyer and Christa Rakich will join organ curator David Kazimir on Oberlin Stage Left to tell about the distinguished history of organ instruction at Oberlin. They’ll also lead a video tour to four of Oberlin’s concert organs — just a few of the instruments in the Conservatory’s impressive keyboard fleet, which includes practice and studio instruments of all styles and sizes. The virtual tour will include brief performances. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
A new CD by Christa Rakich, who is currently Visiting Professor of Organ at the Oberlin Conservatory, gives a nod in two directions. As its title announces, it’s an homage to her former teacher and colleague, the late Yuko Hayashi, longtime professor at the New England Conservatory and curator of Boston’s Old West Church Organ Series. It’s also the first recording to be made of Richards, Fowkes & Co.’s Opus 16 instrument, built in 2008 for Goodson Chapel of the Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. [Read more…]
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…]
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…]