by Timothy Robson
Ars Organi II, a multi-week series of organ recitals and lectures at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, came to an end last weekend. Audiences had been treated to new music for saxophone and organ with Noa Even and St. Paul’s organ mastermind Karel Paukert, followed by a weekend tribute to the great Austrian organist and pedagogue Anton Heiller, including brilliant recitals by two of his former students, Jay Peterson and Christa Rakich.
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…]
by Timothy Robson
There are few major composers of organ music whose complete works for the instrument can be combined into a single concert of reasonable length. Maurice Duruflé, virtuoso French organist active from the 1930s almost until his death in 1986, is such a composer. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
During his tenure as organist of Washington National Cathedral, Erik Wm. Suter introduced the organ to thousands of tourists in weekly recitals, astutely planning his programs to immediately grab the attention of listeners who might never have attended an organ recital before, then moving on to show the palette of colors a large pipe organ could produce and the range of musical styles it could handle.
by Daniel Hathaway
Former Washington Cathedral organist Erik Wm. Suter will play a recital on the Holtkamp organ in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights on Saturday, September 20 at 5:00 pm. The big question is whether he’ll fly himself to Cleveland.
When Suter was growing up in Chicago, two things fascinated him, and the first one wasn’t music. “I took my first airplane ride when I was three,” he said in a recent telephone conversation. “For better or worse, they let me come up to the cockpit and I was hooked. I really wanted to be a pilot — who doesn’t when he’s a kid!”
The organ came later. “My dad was a Lutheran pastor, so I was exposed to organ playing every week. I found the instrument more technically fascinating than musical — I’m drawn to complexity — and originally I was more interested in building organs than in playing them. Then I started taking lessons at the age of 13 and fell in love with the repertoire.”
Suter revisited his interest in organ building while studying organ performance at Oberlin with Haskell Thompson from 1991-1995, where he came into contact with Oberlin’s organ technician. “Hal Gobert hired me for a few summers at his shop in Toronto. I think it makes you a better organist if you fully understand what goes on inside.” [Read more…]