The 2024-2025 Pipes Alive! series concludes with organist artist-in-residence Christa Rakich playing the St. John’s organ with violinist Gabriel Roth and narrator John Nowacki on Sunday, June 1, at 12:30pm. This event will be presented in person and by livestream.

The concert is free admission – donations welcome in any amount. Checks payable to Music at the Red Door or click here to donate online.

Click the image below to watch. Click here for full program pdf.

PROGRAM:
The Lark Ascending – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Two Tales by Hans Christian Andersen – James Woodman (b. 1957)
The Top and Ball
1. The top proposes to the ball
2. The ball and the swallow: a dalliance
3. The ball bounces eight times—and disappears on the ninth
4. The top yearns for the ball
5. The top spins into the dust-bin
6. The ball, a little worse for wear
7. The pitiful fate of the ball
The Saucy Boy
1. The old poet
2. Stormy weather
3. The little child in the rain
4. The little child’s air
5. The little child’s gigue
6. Cupid’s arrows
7. The wounded poet and his warning
8(a). Cupid at large: among the students
8(b). Cupid at large: in the chapel
8(c). Cupid at large: even grandmother is at risk
9. Beware the saucy boy!

Learn more about St. John’s famed Austin pipe organ.

About the Artists:

Concert and recording artist Christa Rakich performs widely throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. She is Visiting Professor of Organ at Oberlin Conservatory. Near her home in Connecticut, she maintains two Artist-in-Residencies: St. John’s Episcopal Church in West Hartford and the Congregational Church of Somers. Past Artist-in-Residencies have included the University of Pennsylvania and First Lutheran Church in Boston.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Christa Rakich studied with renowned Bach interpreter Anton Heiller at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Organ and German from Oberlin College (Phi Beta Kappa).  After receiving her Master’s degree with honors from New England Conservatory, she joined the faculty there, teaching for many years, and serving ultimately as department co-chair. She has also served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Brandeis University, and the University of Connecticut, and as Assistant University Organist at Harvard.

Gabriel Roth, from Maplewood, NJ, is a violinist whose interests span multiple genres. Recent performance collaborations include Enrico Gatti and ARTEK, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, as well as the Syracuse, Mansfield, and Firelands Symphony Orchestras. His playing has been heard nationally on both PBS and American Public Media’s Performance Today®.

Gabriel recently graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory with degrees in History (BA) and Violin Performance (BM), where he was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Kappa Lambda. At Oberlin, Gabriel was both a John F. Oberlin and Marilyn McDonald Violin Scholarship recipient and served as concertmaster of the Oberlin Orchestra, Contemporary Music Ensemble, and Baroque Orchestra, with whom he also performed as soloist. His primary teachers have included David Bowlin, Jung-min Amy Lee, Deborah Buck, and Edwin Huizinga.

Originally from the Midwest, John Nowacki has had an interest in classical music since he was a high school student, having discovered organ music recordings by E. Power Biggs and singing in the high school’s choirs. His radio career began in 1982 at WILL-FM in Champaign-Urbana, Ilinois, where he started as a board operator for local programming, then became a classical music host. He worked for several Illinois stations before making the move to WNPR in 1990.
John lives in Hartford, Connecticut, with his husband and Myles the cat. He sings as a bass/baritone in the choir of St. John’s Episcopal Church, West Hartford. He also enjoys reading good science fiction, and biographies of 16th- and 17th-century historical figures.

 

Join us for half-hour organ concerts featuring St. John’s magnificent Austin pipe organ, on the first Sunday of the month, October through June, 12:30 p.m. with regional organists. Free!