RSS
Music at the Red Door
  • Home
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events – Videos
    • COVID-19 Concerts
    • Upcoming Services
    • Past Service Archive: Music and Sermons
    • Season Brochure
  • Music Camp
  • About
    • News
    • Concert Series
    • Directors and Staff
    • Sponsors
    • St. John’s Choir
      • Choir School Info/Auditions
      • Choir School Dates/Policies
      • A Day (or Two) in the Life of a Chorister
    • Concert Archive
    • St. John’s Episcopal Church, West Hartford
  • Donate
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsors
  • Venue/Directions
    • Driving Directions
    • About the Organ
    • Recordings of the Organ
  • Contact
February 21, 2020 @ 7:30 pm – @ 8:30 pmSt. John's Episcopal Church

679 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06119

Donate

Celebrity Organ Concert: Simon Johnson

We welcome concert organist Simon Johnson to the mighty St. John’s pipe organ on Friday, February 21 at 7:30pm. Mr. Johnson is organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.

This concert is free admission, no tickets required. Suggested donation: $20 Checks payable to Music at the Red Door.

A reception follows in the church hall. 

PROGRAM:

C. Hubert H. Parry (English, 1848-1918)
Fantasia and Fugue in G major 1913()

Percy Whitlock (English, 1903-1946)
Five Short Pieces (1929)

Jacques van Oortmerssen (Dutch, 1950-2015)
Nun ruhen alle wälder (2011)

Louis Vierne (French, 1870-1937)
Symphony No 3 in F sharp minor (Op. 28) (1911)

This concert, which is the only New England stop on Simon Johnson’s American tour, continues the series of celebrity organ recitals that feature the renowned Austin pipe organ at St John’s Episcopal Church.

Simon Johnson is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation, successfully combining life as a virtuoso organist with extensive work in choral direction, composition, and arrangement. As the Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, he has been involved in all the national occasions that have taken place there since his appointment in 2008, including the funeral service of Baroness Thatcher, the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, and Her Majesty’s 90th Birthday celebrations, for which he also arranged some of the music. Recitals have taken him all over Europe and the USA, and he has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Sixteen, and worked with Wes Anderson on the Oscar-, BAFTA-, and Grammy-award-winning soundtrack for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The February 21 program includes music of varying styles by English, Dutch, and French composers. The program opens with the technically demanding, Baroque-styled Fantasia and Fugue in G major by C. Hubert H. Parry (English, 1848-1918). A lighter mood prevails in the Five Short Pieces of Percy Whitlock (English, 1903-1946), whose experience as a theatre organist in a seaside resort infuses these vignettes with “engaging stylistic diversity.” (Hyperion) The brief chorale-prelude Nun ruhen alle wälder, composed in 2011 by Jacques van Oortmerssen (Dutch, 1950-2015) is modeled on Bach’s chorale-preludes, and offers a subtle meditation on an old chorale tune. The program concludes with the Symphony No. 3 in F-sharp minor by French composer Louis Vierne (1870-1937), who for 37 years was the principal organist at the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. An “organ symphony” is so-called because it employs the symphonic process of thematic development and, more importantly, draws on the extraordinary variety of tones available in a pipe organ to imitate orchestral tonal color and volume.

This concert is co-sponsored by the Greater Hartford Chapter, American Guild of Organists.

Music at the Red Door is supported in part by the Richard P. Garmany Fund of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation, the George A. & Grace L. Long Foundation, the Ensworth Charitable Foundation, the William & Alice Mortensen Foundation, and the Marjorie Jolidon Fund of the Greater Hartford Chapter, American Guild of Organists. 

« Pipes Alive! – Cheryl Wadsworth, organist» Choral Evensong – Voices of Concinnity

You can help!

Your donation to Music at the Red Door helps us to continue enriching the lives our greater community. Please give generously, and sign up for regular email updates.

Donate
Sign Up for Email Updates

Events

  • Upcoming
  • Past
  • February 5, 2023 @ 12:30 pm – @ 1:00 pm

    Pipes Alive! – Noah Klein, organist

    February 10, 2023 @ 7:30 pm – @ 8:30 pm

    Jazz at the Red Door: Nat Reeves and Friends

    February 26, 2023 @ 5:00 pm – @ 6:00 pm

    Choral Evensong – St. Patrick-St. Anthony Gallery Choir

    March 5, 2023 @ 3:00 pm – @ 4:30 pm

    Choral Music for the Soul: Fauré & Saint-Saëns

    March 19, 2023 @ 2:00 pm – @ 3:00 pm

    New World Trio: Ensemble-in-Residence at the Red Door

    March 26, 2023 @ 5:00 pm – @ 6:00 pm

    Choral Evensong – Trebles from Five Churches

    April 2, 2023 @ 12:30 pm – @ 1:00 pm

    Pipes Alive! – Scott Lamlein, organist

    April 21, 2023 @ 7:30 pm – @ 8:30 pm

    Spring Chamber Music: Catalyst String Quartet

    April 23, 2023 @ 5:00 pm – @ 6:00 pm

    Choral Evensong – St. John’s Schola

  • January 22, 2023 @ 5:00 pm – @ 6:00 pm

    Choral Evensong – The Anglican Singers

    January 15, 2023 @ 2:00 pm – @ 3:00 pm

    New World Trio: Ensemble-in-Residence at the Red Door

    December 11, 2022 @ 3:00 pm – @ 4:00 pm

    Candlelight Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

    December 4, 2022 @ 12:30 pm – @ 1:00 pm

    Pipes Alive! – Susan Carroll, organist

    November 6, 2022 @ 12:30 pm – @ 1:00 pm

    CHANGE OF VENUE – Pipes Alive! at St. James’s – Alan Murchie, organist

    October 23, 2022 @ 5:00 pm – @ 6:00 pm

    Choral Evensong – St. John’s Choir School & Adult Choir

    October 16, 2022 @ 2:00 pm – @ 3:00 pm

    New World Trio: Ensemble-in-Residence at the Red Door

    October 14, 2022 @ 7:30 pm – @ 8:30 pm

    Boyd Meets Girl: Laura Metcalf, cello; Rupert Boyd, guitar

    September 25, 2022 @ 5:00 pm – @ 6:00 pm

    Choral Evensong – Come and sing!

Music at the Red Door, Inc.
St. John's Episcopal Church, West Hartford, CT
679 Farmington Avenue - West Hartford, CT (directions)

Scott Lamlein, Artistic Director
Raymond Giolitto, Operations Director
860-523-5201, ext. 324 (contact)

© Music at the Red Door 2023
Powered by WordPress • Themify WordPress Themes
  • Church Master Calendar
  • Adult Choir Calendar
  • Youth Choir Calendar