Here are some of the recent events held in our area!



Three Advent Recitals at 12:15 PM, First United Methodist Church, Burlington

Dec. 6 George Matthew, Jr. organist
Toccata, canon and fugue on "Come, Savior of the Nations"   Ragnar Bovre Haugene
Canonic Variations on "From Heaven above to Earth I come"   J. S. Bach
Chorale Variations on the Gregorian Ave Maria   Sergei Taneijev

Dec. 13 Dr. James Wright, pianist
Helen Wright, violinist
George Matthew, Jr., organist
Variations on the St. Anthony Chorale arranged for piano and organ   Johannes Brahms
Sonata for violin and clavier   G. F. Handel

Dec. 20 George Matthew, Jr., organist
Works by J.S. Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, Reinhold Gliere, Pietro Yon, Siegfried Karg-Elert and Eugene Gigout

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The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, Vermont offered a special service on Sunday, December 16 at 5:00 PM featuring The Great O Antiphons of Advent. The Cathedral choirs, under the direction of Mark Howe, sang at this festive candlelit service. Music included Peter Hallock's setting of the seven Great O Antiphons, as well as works by William Byrd, Ellen Gilson Voth, Michael Fleming, and others. Festive banners designed by Judith McManis adorned the nave.

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On Sunday, December 2, Grace Church in Rutland presented the annual performances of Handel's "Messiah". The Rutland Area Chorus, soloists and orchestra performed the concerts at 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM under the direction of Rip Jackson.

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St. Denis Parish, Hanover, N.H. featured a N.H. Master Chorale Concert, November 18 at 4:00 with conductor Dan Perkins. This concert was part of the church's on-going centennial celebration. Works included a newly commissioned set of pieces by Jonathan Santore, and "Night Pieces," by J.A.C. Redford. Harp, English horn, French horn, viola and cello accompanied these two works. Additional music was by Distler, Bruckner, Gjeilo (a Norwegian composer), as well as two Peruvian pieces from the chorale's recent summer concert tour.

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The annual Thanksgiving concert of the Middlebury Community/College Chorus, directed by Jeffrey Rehbach and accompanied by George Matthew on organ and piano, took place at Mead Chapel, Middlebury College at 3:00 PM, Sunday, November 18, 2007. The 100 member chorus performed works by Cesar Franck, Aaron Copland, Rene Clausen, Steven Paulus, and Johann Pachelbel, and selections from Haydn's Creation.

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CHRISTA RAKICH, concert and recording artist, and Distinguished Artist in Residence at First Lutheran Church in Boston who plays the Richards & Fowkes Opus 10 organ, presented a recital on R & F Opus 13 on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2007, at 3 p.m., at THE FIRST CHURCH of DEERFIELD, 71 Old Main St., Deerfield, MA. This event was part of The Brick Church Music Series at the church.

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November 10, 2007 7:30 P.M. Mary Milkey-May performed works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Karg-Elert, Purvis and others on the Estey Organ at the First Baptist Church, Main St. Brattleboro, VT.

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The 7th Katharine Dopp Organ Recital took place on October 21 at 3:30 PM at First Baptist Church, Burlington. AGO member George Matthew played the 1864 Hook tracker, which he played for the past year as Interim Organist. He is now Director of Music, Organist and Choir Director at the First Methodist Church of Burlington. The Recital Series honors the memory of Katharine E. Dopp who played the instrument at First Baptist for 30 years. Look at the October issue for highlights of George's program.

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Pianist Diana Fanning gave a concert of works by Mozart, Janacek, and Debussy on Tuesday, October 16, 12 noon at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, State and Third Streets, Troy, NY.

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Organ and Trumpet Concert
Featuring music by Gabrieli, Bach, Mendelssohn, und Reger

Church of Christ at Dartmouth College
40 College Street
Hanover, NH

4:00 pm Sunday, October 14, 2007

Frank Zimpel, organist, and Alexander Pfeifer, trumpeter, are on their second American tour together. Trained in Germany, these Leipzig musicians have performed throughout Europe and have garnered rave reviews. www.zimpel-pfeifer.de

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Philip Stimmel and Ed Boadway held an organ tour on Saturday afternoon, October 13, beginning at noon in the Congregational Church, West Brattleboro. The schedule included organs by Steere, Erben, Ryder, Nutting, Hamill and Hook & Hastings, with a visit to a museum and the demonstration of a recently-renovated electropneumatic Estey two-manual reed organ. The tour included Dummerston Center, Putney, Westminster West, Saxton's River, Grafton, Newfane and Townshend.

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Emory Fanning, Professor Emeritus of Music, Middlebury College, presented an all Franck Organ Recital on Sunday, September 30, 2007 at 3 PM in Mead Chapel, Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. The program included "Chorale I in E", "Cantabile in B", "Chorale II in b", "Pastorale in E", and "Chorale in a". This was a free concert featuring the Gress-Miles Organ, III 50.

Although he wrote just a dozen organ works, Cesar Franck is considered the most important composer for the organ in the 19th century for his use of traditional musical forms in a new and unique tonal language. The magnificent Gress-Miles organ in Mead Chapel has all the necessary resources to bring Franck’s great music to life. Organist Emory Fanning has made a life-long study of the works of Franck, has lectured on Franck at the International Organ Seminar in Paris, and has published an annotated facsimile edition of Franck’s Choral II.

This concert took place at 3:00 PM, Sunday, September 30, at Mead Memorial Chapel, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT.

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Arthur B Zorn, Minister of Music at Bethany Church, 115 Main Street, Montpelier,VT, performed an organ recital on Sunday, September 30, 2:00 pm. Mr. Zorn played the wonderful German Baroque mechanical action pipe organ at Bethany Church. His program featured his own transcriptions of music by Handel, Brahms, Schubert, Elgar, Faure, Holst, and Puccini, as well as two thrilling Improvisations with percussionist Doug Little. A television monitor placed in the front of the church allowed the audience to see the keyboard artistry at close range as the organ is located in the rear of the sanctuary.

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A dedication organ recital for the restored Hutchings, Plaisted & Co. organ (the Thayer organ) at the Universalist Chapel Society (Unitarian-Universalist) in Woodstock, Vermont was held Sunday, September 23 at 4 PM. William Porter was the featured artist for this year's Samuel B. Whitney Organ Recital. More details about this organ and the recital are included in this newsletter.

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22nd Annual Summer Carillon Series
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College, Fridays at 4 PM:

June 29 George Matthew, Jr., Carillonneur, Middlebury College and Norwich University
July 6 Elena Sadina, Belgian Carillon School and Middlebury College Summer Russian School
July 13 Laurel Buckwalter, Carillonneur, Alfred University
July 20 Auke de Boer and Adolph Rots, Carillonneurs, Groningen, Netherlands
July 27 Toru Takao, Carillonneur, Amersfoort, Netherlands
August 3 Sergei Gretchev, Belgian Carillon School and Middlebury College Summer Russian School
August 10 David Maker, Carillonneur, University of Connecticut
August 17 Alexander Solovov, Belgian Carillon School and Middlebury College Summer Russian School

22nd Annual Summer Carillon Series
Norwich University, Saturdays at 1 PM:

June 30 George Matthew, Jr., Carillonneur, Middlebury College and Norwich University
July 7 Elena Sadina, Belgian Carillon School and Middlebury College Summer Russian School
July 14 Laurel Buckwalter, Carillonneur, Alfred University, Alfred, NY
July 21 Auke deBoer and Adolph Rots, Carillonneurs, Groningen, Netherlands
July 28 Toru Takao, Amersfoort, Netherlands
August 4 Alexander Solovov, Belgian Carillon School and Middlebury College Summer Russian School


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At 7 PM, Monday, June 24th, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Rutland, Vermont hosted a program of original works by Dr. Morton Gold, former Rutland resident and director of music at the church. The Gold Festival Singers performed six original works by Dr. Gold, directed by Dr. Gold and Olivia Gawett, and accompanied by George Matthew, Jr. on organ. The composer also accompanied on piano several original works for wind instruments.

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Lonieta Aurora Thompson Cornwall, organist, choral director, composer, and educator, instructor of music at Shaw University, Raleigh, NC presented a concert on the Estey Memorial Organ, Op. 300 (1906) at the First Baptist Church, 190 Main Street, Brattleboro at 3 PM, Sunday, July 1. The concert was sponsored by the First Baptist Church and the Estey Organ Museum.

The connection between Brattleboro and Shaw University goes back to Jacob Estey, who gave substantial funding for the building of Estey Hall (then called "Estey Seminary"), the first college building for women on a co-educational campus in the US, opening in 1874 at this oldest African-American institute of higher learning in the South.

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Russian Organ Recital

George Matthew, Jr. Carillonneur of Middlebury College and Norwich University and Minister of Music of First Methodist Church, Burlington, presented an organ recital of works by Russian composers at Mead Chapel, Middlebury College, at 7:30 PM on Monday, July 2nd. Included were works by Nikolaiev, Karatygin, Nirenburg, and Glasunov. This was the 7th "Russian recital" held at the college.

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Our Chapter's Annual Meeting was at Gethsemane Episcopal Church, Proctorsville, VT, on Sunday, June 3 at 4:00 PM. Artist of the Year Ed Boadway played a recital on the large one manual 1889 Estey reed organ which he procured for the church to replace a spinet electronic in 1997.

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Lynette Combs, organist at the Universalist Church in Barre, VT, gave an all-Bach recital several times:

May 20 - St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Springfield, VT, 4:00 PM
May 29 - St. Paul's Cathedral, Burlington, VT, 12:00 PM


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May 6 - Dr. William Tortolano presented a dedicatory recital at the First Congregational Church or St. Albans, VT at 3:00 PM, celebrating the Hook & Hastings organ's recent restoration by the Andover Organ company. The program included works by Bach, Buxtehude, Peeters, Clarke, and others.

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April 29 - Jack V. Austin performed works of Sweelinck, J.M. Bach, J.S. Bach, Karg-Elert, Murrill, Thomson, and Franck.

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The Unitarian Church in Burlington, VT celebrated the installation of their new combination pipe/electronic organ built by R.A. Colby of Johnson City, TN. This organ replaces the much- reworked 1954 Austin that was previously in the church. The first recital was on January 28, featuring Annette Richards of Cornell.




Maintained by Sherri Matthew  Last modified 1/18/2008