by Robert Rollin
Last Sunday afternoon the Stambaugh Auditorium Organ Series celebrated Halloween by screening the 1920 silent movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with improvised accompaniment by organist Dorothy Papadakos. The cheerful performer arrived clad in a Mr. Hyde costume complete with the requisite top hat, circa 1890, explaining that the Stambaugh concert was part of her Halloween tour. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
New York-based organist Christopher Houlihan returns to the restored E.M. Skinner organ at Youngstown’s Stambaugh Auditorium on Sunday, April 23 at 4:00 pm for a program of music by Louis Vierne, Olivier Messiaen, J.S. Bach, and César Franck.
Houlihan is well-known in Northeast Ohio, having played Bach, Franck, and Vierne at Stambaugh in November 2012, Vierne and Liszt at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights in April 2013, and most recently, Bach, Franck, and Vierne at Christ Presbyterian Church in Canton on March 19 of this year.
That repertoire list gives a big hint about Houlihan’s musical tastes, which run heavily toward French Romantic music, a national tradition the organist imbibed first-hand during a year he spent in Paris serving as assistant organist at the American Cathedral. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Duo-piano teams pop up with some frequency on recital series, but duo-organists not so much. The Atlanta-based husband and wife team of Raymond and Elizabeth Chenault have four-handedly (and four-footedly) set out to change that dynamic, having commissioned and performed some 60 organ duets during their four decades of sharing an organ bench. [Read more…]