Photo courtesy of Danny Lennox Bronson.
Organist Charles Tompkins was scheduled to perform in the annual Organ Recital Series at Independent Presbyterian Church on Nov. 10.
Independent Presbyterian Church will present its popular Organ Recital Series in November, and the free concerts — a church tradition since 1965 — will again feature some of the instrument’s top international stars.
“We always get the best,” said Jeff McLelland, IPC director of music and fine arts.
“I hand pick people I know will play fantastic recitals and are interesting, well-liked personalities,” he said.
The concerts are held each Sunday in November at 4 p.m. in the church sanctuary.
► Nov. 3: Johann Vexo, choir organist at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, will open the series. He is also the organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Cathedral in Nancy and a professor at the Superior Music Academy in Strasbourg.
► Nov. 10: Charles Tompkins, one of America’s outstanding organ teachers and concert organists, has been a faculty member at Furman University since 1986. Recent engagements have included recitals at Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.
► Nov. 17: Amanda Mole, from Rochester, N.Y., is a rising star whose performances have been described as “elegant” and “lucid” by The American Organist. Mole took first prize in the International Musashino-Tokyo Organ Competition and has performed in the United States, Europe and Japan.
► Nov. 24: Todd Wilson, head of the organ department of the Cleveland Institute of Music, is one of the world’s finest concert organists. He is also the curator of the E.M. Skinner pipe organ at Severance Hall and director of music and worship at Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral.
The concerts feature the church’s Joseph W. Schreiber Memorial Organ. Built by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders and installed in 2012, the organ is “incredible,” one of the best anywhere, McLelland said.
“The design of it is symphonic, classic and it has an enormous variety of sounds,” he said.
“Three different people can play it and it can sound like three different organs because of the variety of sounds and combinations of sounds that can be created,” he said.
And the organ has received positive feedback from all of the visiting artists.
“Everybody who plays this organ raves about it,” McLelland said.
Admission to the series is free, as it has been since the beginning of the series, McLelland said. The hour-long recitals are followed by receptions with light refreshments.
For details, go to ipc-usa.org/worship/music-fine-arts.html.
