SACRED SOUNDS 2009 - 20010
REMAINING EVENTS
All events are at the
Cathedral of Saint Joseph, 140 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT,
06105. There is no admission charge for concerts at the
Cathedral, but a free-will offering will be accepted.
ORGAN RECITAL
Friday, January 22, 2010 8:00 pm - Dexter Kennedy and Jacob Street
Dexter Kennedy and Jacob Street are two young men who represent the finest in the future of American organ performance. As the first-place winner of the 2009 RCYO AGO/Quimby Region I competition, Mr. Street will perform as a "Rising Star" at the national AGO convention in Washington, D.C. in 2010. Mr. Kennedy has won first place in the 2009 American Guild of Organists (AGO) Region V Quimby Competition for Young Organists. Both of these artists are currently under the tutelage of renowned organist and pedagogue, James David Christie. Hear the future of the organ in the present as Dexter Kennedy and Jacob Street perform works by Mendelssohn, Vierne, Franck, Karg-Elert and others.
LENTEN REFLECTIONS 2010
Each Friday evening in Lent, there will be a musical performance following the 7:00 pm Stations of the Cross.
ORGAN RECITAL
Friday, February 19, 2010 8:00 pm - Stephen Tharp, Organ
Listed in "Who's Who in America" and " Who's Who in the World", Organist Stephen Tharp, is hailed as "the organist for the connoisseur" - Organ Magazine, Germany, "the thinking person’s performer" - Het Orgel, "every bit the equal of any organist" (The American Organist magazine) and "the consummate creative artist" - Michael Barone, Pipedreams, is recognized as one of the great concert organists of our age.
Having played 33 solo intercontinental tours and over 1300 concerts worldwide, Stephen Tharp has built one of the most respected international careers in the world, earning him the reputation as the most traveled concert organist of his generation. The cornerstone of Mr. Tharp’s program will be Marcel Dupré’s Stations of the Cross. It is fitting that Mr. Tharp opens the Cathedral’s Lenten series with the very piece that Dupré himself played annually at Saint Sulpice in Paris each Lent that he held the position. Please see Mr. Tharps web-site for more about his remarkable career: http://www.stephentharp.com/html/about.php
ORGAN RECITAL
Friday, February 26, 2010 8:00 pm Recital – Jeffrey Wood, Organ
Jeffrey Wood is Director of Music and Organist at Saint Mary Roman Catholic Church in Milford , Connecticut . He received his Master of Music Degree in Performance on Historical Keyboard Instruments at Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied organ with James David Christie and harpsichord with Webb Wiggins. Previously, he served as Organ Scholar for Professor Christie at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester , Massachusetts , graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music. Mr. Wood was the first prize winner of the 2004 Augustana Arts National Undergraduate Organ Competition, and the 2005 AGO/Quimby Region I Young Artists Competition. As a result of the latter, he was featured as one of the "Rising Stars" at the 2006 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Chicago . He has performed in master classes for John Grew, David Boe, Jean Ferrard, Jean-Pierre Leguay, Lionel Rogg, Olivier Latry, Marie-Louise Langlais, and Marie-Claire Alain. Mr. Wood has had the opportunity to play and study on many of the great organs of Europe, in France , Belgium , Switzerland , and Italy . His program will explore “Lent in Lübeck” through the music of the composers who lived and worked in one of Germany’s most cultivated cities. Come hear what this “Rising Star” can do with the Cathedral’s world-class Austin Organ.
CHORAL MASTERWORK
Friday, March 5, 2010 8:00 pm Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem
In the midst of the Lenten season, the Cathedral presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's somber and ultimately transcendent "Requiem". Under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Douma, the Cathedral Choir and Soloists are joined by organist Dr. Ezequiel Menéndez and the renowned Arcadia Players in performing noted Mozart scholar Robert D. Levin's critical edition using period instruments.
ORGAN RECITAL
Sunday, March 7, 2010 - Emanuele Cardi, Organ
Emanuele Cardi comes to the Cathedral of Saint Joseph from Italy by the special invitation of Sacred Sounds. He is organist and choirmaster at the Ghilardi organ (1996) and Carli organ (2004) of St. Maria della Speranza's church and Sanctuary in Battipaglia, two of the best known instruments in the international contemporary organ-building school. As an organist, he has concertized in all Europe, Russia, United States and South America, playing some of the most famous Europeans organs among which St. Thomas in New York, cathedrals of Passau, Friburg, Losanne, London, Brussels, Turku, Lund, St. Francisco and others. He also performed several inaugural concerts, among which the one for the restoration of the great Hillis Organ at the Redemptorists' Church in Belfast and the Aeolian-Skinner organ of the First Unitarian Church in Worcester (MA) United States.
He has recorded CDs for "La Bottega Discantica", Motette and AOC. He teaches at the Statal Music Conservatory in Messina (Sicily).
Don't miss hearing what this truly international artist brings to the Cathedral's Mighty Austin.
Friday, March 12, 2010 8:00 pm Recital - Joseph Ripka, Organ
As the first prize winner of the 2008 San Marino/Elizabeth Elftman National Organ Competition and the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition and, most recently, the 2008 Dublin International Organ Competition, Joseph Ripka has earned national and international recognition as one of today’s most promising young organ talents. Fresh from a recital tour of many of the finest organ venues in the UK , Ireland , and the Netherlands , including London ’s St. Paul Cathedral and Westminster Cathedral, Kings College , St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin , and St. Bavokerk in Haarlem , Mr. Ripka comes to the Cathedral’s Mighty Austin Organ in Hartford .His program will trace Lent in progression toward Easter through the music of Barber, Dupré, and Tournemire.
ORGAN RECITAL
Friday, March 19, 2010 8:00 pm Recital – Julia Brown, Organ
Julia Brown is currently Director of Music and Organist at First United Methodist Church in Eugene , Oregon while also maintaining a full schedule of teaching, performing and recording. Dr. Brown has appeared in concert in North and South America and in Europe , having performed for American Guild of Organists Regional and National Conventions, Latin American Organist Conventions, the Oregon Bach Festival, and National Public Radio. As a Naxos recording artist, her releases of Scheidemann and Buxtehude on Brombaugh and Pasi organs have received high critical acclaim. Discography also includes “Christmas Concert” on the historic organ in Mariana , Brazil and “Bach Organ Favorites” on the Taylor & Boody in Indianapolis . Brown is currently recording keyboard and organ works of W. F. Bach for Naxos . Born in Rio de Janeiro , Brown studied piano, harpsichord and organ in her native Brazil before receiving her MM and DMA from Northwestern University as a student of Wolfgang Rübsam.
ORGAN RECITAL
Friday, March 26, 2010 8:00 pm Recital – Jason Roberts, Organ
Currently serving as the Organist and Choir Master of Saint James Episcopal Church in West Hartford, Connecticut, Jason Roberts is a graduate of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and presently enrolled in the doctoral program at the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Roberts, winner of 2008’s National Improvisation Competition at the American Guild of Organists convention in Minneapolis, clearly has the improvisational skills to put the Cathedral’s Mighty Austin’s 137 ranks of pipes to good use. His improvisations are sure to be one of the highlights of the series.
ORGAN AND ORCHESTRA
Sunday, April 4, 2010 10:00 am Easter Sunday Concert
Organist and Archdiocesan Director of Music, Dr. Ezequiel Menéndez is joined by the Soli Deo Gloria Orchestra in a festive musical celebration of Easter immediately prior to the 11:00 am Mass.
CHORAL MASTERWORK
Sunday, May 2, 2010 5:00 pm Concert Benjamin Britten War Requiem
Under the direction of Maestro Christopher Zimmerman, the combined forces of the Hartt School Choirs and Orchestra, CONCORA, the Hartford Chorale, and the Cathedral of Saint Joseph Choir will perform Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem. Originally commissioned for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962 after the original fourteenth century structure had been destroyed during the Second World War, the work is a unique combination of the traditional Requiem Mass interwoven with musical setting of nine texts by English poet Wilfred Owen, who lost his life in the First World War. Scored for soprano, tenor, and baritone solos, choir, chamber orchestra, and full orchestra, the work’s various forces perform in different combinations, ultimately converging in the final movement. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear this moving work in the awe-inspiring stillness of the Cathedral’s unique acoustic.
ORGAN RECITAL
Friday, June 4, 2010 8:00 pm Young Organist Recital
Come and hear a unique concert by the professional organists of tomorrow. In a concert anchored by Ezequiel Menéndez’ organ studio, up-and-coming organists Andre Bernier, Christopher Davenport, William Reed, and Thomas Smith will display their considerable talent on the Cathedral’s Mighty Austin Organ in one of Hartford’s finest acoustics.
ORGAN, ORCHESTRA, AND VOICE
Sunday, June 6, 2010 10:00 am Pentecost Concert
The Cathedral Choir and Soloists and the Soli Deo Gloria Orchestra perform an eclectic mix of sacred vocal and instrumental favorites in joyful celebration of Pentecost immediately preceding the 11:00 am Mass.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF ANGLICAN MUSICIANS OPENING CONCERT
Sunday, June 20, 2010 7:30 p.m. Concert "An Evening in Belgium"
Presented as the opening event of the 2010 National Conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians. “An Evening in Belgium ” features Joseph Jongen’s Mass, Op. 130 and Flor Peeters’ Missa Festiva performed by the combined choirs of Chorus Angelicus/Gaudeamus, St. James, West Hartford , and Christ Church Cathedral. Led by Nicholas White and Kevin Jones, conductors and organists, this concert promises to put the Cathedral’s resplendent acoustic to good use.
