Organ Spectacular
Sunday, September 10, 2017 2:30pm First United Methodist Church
Respighi Suite in G Major for Organ & Strings Eric Wicks, organ Hanson Concerto for Organ, Harp & Strings, op. 22, no. 3 (1926) Joseph Galema, organ Widor Symphony Op. 69, no. 3 in E minor for Organ & Orchestra Deke Polifka, organ |
Our Organ Spectacular concerts have been some of our most popular. The Chamber Orchestra opens its season with an all-new program featuring Widor’s powerful Third Symphony for organ and orchestra, with lesser-known gems by Respighi and American composer Howard Hanson. It’s another exciting musical adventure with three of Colorado Springs’ best organists to begin our season in style.
Pre-concert talk 45 minutes prior to the concert with Donald Zimmerman, D.M.A., Music Director, Immanuel Lutheran Church.
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PROGRAM NOTES by MARK ARNEST
Concert Overview
Hector Berlioz, the father of modern orchestration, advised against combining the organ with the orchestra: “Both the organ and the orchestra are kings; or rather, one is the emperor and the other the pope. Their tasks are different; their interests are too vast and too divergent to be mixed together.” But two generations later, Richard Strauss had a different opinion: “The organ is really nothing but a wind instrument – perhaps not a soulful individual like the oboe, but still a soulful mechanism.” To Strauss’s expert ears, the organ blended with the orchestra more organically than the piano.
This program explores three composers’ responses to the challenge of combining orchestra and organ. Widor and Respighi mostly take Berlioz’s advice; Hanson, the youngest composer on the program, takes Strauss’s view, treating the organ as an enormous wind section and blending it with the orchestra to beautiful effect.
Overview: Ottorino Respighi
Born: July 9, 1879, Bologna, Italy; died April 18, 1936, Rome, Italy
Work Composed: 1901, 1905
Why It Matters: A lovely and little-heard work by a master of orchestration
It’s been written of Johannes Brahms that he was the first composer to make a career out of regretting the fact that he hadn’t been born earlier. It’s arguably an even more apt description of Respighi. Like Brahms, he was a scholar of earlier music, editing editions of Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Marcello. And though he’s best known for his splashy tone-poems, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, his output contains numerous arrangements of earlier composers’ music, along with original works composed in imitation of earlier styles. Nor was this a passing phase in the life of a developing composer: One of his final completed works is a revision of Orfeo, Claudio Monteverdi’s seminal 1607 opera.
Composers’ biographies tend to be dull – their journeys are internal rather than external – and Respighi’s is no exception. He showed talent at an early age, graduated from the Liceo Musicale in Bologna at the age of 19, and began working as an orchestral violinist. He caught a break in 1900, when the Russian Imperial Theatre in Saint Petersburg devoted its season to Italian opera and hired Respighi as principal violinist; there he met Rimsky-Korsakov, whose orchestration lessons would have a deep and enduring effect on Respighi. But on returning to Italy he made his living primarily as a violinist until 1913, when he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome. This was his post until his death 23 years later.
Even Mussolini’s rise to power left Respighi unscathed: Though he kept his political views private, he lobbied for anti-Fascist musicians such as Arturo Toscanini without suffering governmental reprisals. Toscanini repaid him by championing Respighi’s music outside Italy, and beginning with the 1915 Fountains of Rome, he began to achieve an international reputation.
The Suite in G Major for Organ and Strings is one of the first Respighi compositions to refer back to earlier music, in this case the Baroque concerto and the music of Bach, Corelli, and Frescobaldi. Respighi later shortened the piece, but the original version heard on this program is more widely performed.
The first movement is all hustle and bustle, with orchestra and organ alternating in the manner of a Baroque concerto grosso. While the musical style doesn’t allow for the kind of coloristic touches we associate with Rimsky-Korsakov, the lushness of the string writing – with the sections frequently divided in two – displays the depth to which Respighi assimilated his teacher’s lessons.
Respighi was particularly fond of the poignant second movement. It’s arranged from an earlier work, the 1901 Aria for strings; and he also used the theme in his 1905 Suite for Flute and Strings No. 2. It’s a lovely melody, spun out seamlessly to great length: an outpouring of sadness. We easily hear the three-part form through the key scheme of G minor/G major/G minor.
The pensive Pastorale looks back even further, to the early Baroque of Frescobaldi. Atypically for a suite, it’s in a different key: D minor instead of G. (The D major ending sets up the finale more dramatically than G major would have.) Here the strings are not only subdivided, but they are frequently muted as well, creating an almost other-worldly sound. The organ participates as a solemn commentator.
The finale’s opening – Puccini-esque slabs of parallel chords – is the suite’s least Baroque theme. But the second theme, introduced in octaves in the strings, has contrapuntal potentialities worthy of Bach, and Respighi takes full advantage of them, building to a grand ending.
Overview: Howard Hanson
Born: October 28, 1896, Wahoo, Nebraska; died February 26, 1981, Rochester, New York
Work Composed: 1923, 1926, 1941
Why It Matters: A rarely heard work by an American Romantic
American classical music has had few champions as energetic and passionate as Howard Hanson. He sponsored concerts devoted to American music and festivals of American music; as a conductor, he championed not just his own music, but that of numerous other American composers. He was director of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester for 40 years, during which time it became one of the nation’s finest music schools – and hosted premiers of over 2,000 American compositions by some 500 composers.
American classical music has not repaid Hanson’s devotion. Of his seven symphonies, only the second, subtitled “Romantic,” has found a durable place in the repertoire. Student ensembles still perform his expertly crafted pieces, but they’re rare in concert halls.
This may be nothing more than inertia: Musicologist Walter Simmons has written of Hanson that he “was a bold and outspoken advocate of music as a euphonious vehicle for untrammeled emotional expression during a period when the new-music community had become hostile to such a point of view,” and a lot of Hanson’s music has simply not had much opportunity to catch on. But for whatever reason, Hanson’s unabashed romanticism has not resonated with contemporary audiences the way Samuel Barber’s has.
The concerto you hear today is the third and final version of a piece that began in 1923 as North and West, a tone poem for chorus and orchestra. Three years later, Hanson recast the piece as a concerto for organ and large orchestra; in 1941 he revised it again into the version on this program – not due to any defects in the concerto, but simply to expand the number of venues in which it could be performed.
Like many of Hanson’s works, this concerto is in a single movement with several contrasting sections. The dimensions are modest: Despite its many moods, not only is it shorter than any concerto by Mozart or Beethoven, but it’s shorter even than the first movements of some Beethoven concertos. It has many characteristics of Hanson’s best work: spontaneity, approachability, and an almost cinematic lushness of emotion.
The most jarring harmonies are heard near the beginning, as the calm, undulating harp is overwhelmed by stabbing dissonances in the strings, against which the organ presents the first of the two main themes, a quiet motif that insistently climbs.
The strings win out, but they lead not to the sort of angst-ridden theme that this conflict might cause a listener to expect, but to a warm climax followed by the piece’s lovely, languid second theme, also presented by the organ. The following organ cadenza is based on a variant of the first theme; this kind of variation allows Hanson to provide variety without sacrificing musical coherence. Next comes a jaunty allegro that begins with an almost Latin American 3+2+3 rhythm; a dramatic organ cadenza; a solemn slow movement; a march-like passage; and finally, after overcoming a sense of harmonic resistance, a triumphant conclusion in an unexpected key.
Overview: Charles-Marie Widor
Born: Feb. 21, 1844; died March 12, 1937
Work Composed: 1894
Why It Matters: The most widely heard orchestral work from an expert French composer
Widor was the 19th Century’s most important organist, and among its most important composers of organ music. He was organist at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris – one of the most prestigious organ jobs in France – for nearly 64 years, from 1870 until his retirement in 1933. (Recordings from Saint-Sulpice in 1932 show the 88-year-old Widor in fine shape.) Beginning in 1890, he also taught at the Paris Conservatory, where his students included many of the next generation’s most important organists, including Marcel Dupré, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, and Albert Schweitzer.
Widor will always be linked to Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the 19th Century’s most influential organ-builder. Cavaillé-Coll was a close friend of Widor’s father, and helped the son with his education. For his part, Widor made full use of Cavaillé-Coll’s innovations, inspired by Saint-Sulpice’s magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ.
It’s not surprising that Widor’s organ compositions are his best known. But as this symphony shows, his orchestral writing was equally assured.
The piece is in two movements, with each movement itself divided in two – an obvious homage to Camille Saint-Saens’s famous Organ Symphony of 1886. (Saint-Saens himself first used this formal conception in his Piano Concerto No. 4 of 1875.) The two movements mimic a traditional four-movement form, with the first movement containing the allegro and the adagio, and the second movement containing the scherzo and finale. Also reminiscent of Saint-Saens is the piece’s cyclical form in which themes from the first movement recur in the second.
Even more so than Saint-Saens’s symphony, this is a symphony with organ, and not an organ concerto: The organ part is challenging, but not at all spectacular, and the instrument is silent for long stretches. Following Berlioz’s advice, Widor is more likely to juxtapose the organ and orchestra than to blend them – even to the extent of having them trade off phrases of different thematic material, different expressive character, and different tempos.
In its content, the symphony is more reminiscent of Berlioz than of Saint-Saens. (Widor’s knowledge of Berlioz’s music was so extensive that he published his own revision of Berlioz’s famous treatise on orchestration.) Widor presents four themes in short order: The first promptly disappears until the second movement; the second and third themes – a somewhat Wagnerian horn call and a lyrical woodwind chorale – are used in both movements; and the fourth theme will dominate the first movement. Musicologist Daniel Barbello describes this stormy string motif as “a sweeping, unmelodic, but motivically striking theme.” It’s developed vigorously and dramatically for several minutes. There’s a traditional sonata form lurking under the surface, but it’s not presented with the lucidity typical of Saint-Saens; listeners are advised simply to let the music unfold, and trust that it will make sense.
The drama subsides into the movement’s second half, a lyrical and ruminative adagio that expands on the woodwind chorale and also incorporates elements of the movement’s main theme. It’s the part of the symphony that makes the deepest impression on first hearing.
The second movement begins with a scherzo in 6/8 time (two beats, each divided into thirds) and A-B-A form. The organ is silent for this entire section, returning at the beginning of the final section with a triumphant statement of the first movement’s chorale theme. The jubilant mood soon subsides into lyricism, but with an underlying rhythmic energy. A massive crescendo leads to the climactic final statement of the chorale, singing out in the organ and brass over rhythmically charged strings and woodwinds.
Of Widor’s five orchestral symphonies, this is the most often performed; Widor himself chose it for his farewell program at Saint-Sulpice, with the composer conducting and Marcel Dupré at the organ.
Concert Overview
Hector Berlioz, the father of modern orchestration, advised against combining the organ with the orchestra: “Both the organ and the orchestra are kings; or rather, one is the emperor and the other the pope. Their tasks are different; their interests are too vast and too divergent to be mixed together.” But two generations later, Richard Strauss had a different opinion: “The organ is really nothing but a wind instrument – perhaps not a soulful individual like the oboe, but still a soulful mechanism.” To Strauss’s expert ears, the organ blended with the orchestra more organically than the piano.
This program explores three composers’ responses to the challenge of combining orchestra and organ. Widor and Respighi mostly take Berlioz’s advice; Hanson, the youngest composer on the program, takes Strauss’s view, treating the organ as an enormous wind section and blending it with the orchestra to beautiful effect.
Overview: Ottorino Respighi
Born: July 9, 1879, Bologna, Italy; died April 18, 1936, Rome, Italy
Work Composed: 1901, 1905
Why It Matters: A lovely and little-heard work by a master of orchestration
It’s been written of Johannes Brahms that he was the first composer to make a career out of regretting the fact that he hadn’t been born earlier. It’s arguably an even more apt description of Respighi. Like Brahms, he was a scholar of earlier music, editing editions of Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Marcello. And though he’s best known for his splashy tone-poems, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, his output contains numerous arrangements of earlier composers’ music, along with original works composed in imitation of earlier styles. Nor was this a passing phase in the life of a developing composer: One of his final completed works is a revision of Orfeo, Claudio Monteverdi’s seminal 1607 opera.
Composers’ biographies tend to be dull – their journeys are internal rather than external – and Respighi’s is no exception. He showed talent at an early age, graduated from the Liceo Musicale in Bologna at the age of 19, and began working as an orchestral violinist. He caught a break in 1900, when the Russian Imperial Theatre in Saint Petersburg devoted its season to Italian opera and hired Respighi as principal violinist; there he met Rimsky-Korsakov, whose orchestration lessons would have a deep and enduring effect on Respighi. But on returning to Italy he made his living primarily as a violinist until 1913, when he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome. This was his post until his death 23 years later.
Even Mussolini’s rise to power left Respighi unscathed: Though he kept his political views private, he lobbied for anti-Fascist musicians such as Arturo Toscanini without suffering governmental reprisals. Toscanini repaid him by championing Respighi’s music outside Italy, and beginning with the 1915 Fountains of Rome, he began to achieve an international reputation.
The Suite in G Major for Organ and Strings is one of the first Respighi compositions to refer back to earlier music, in this case the Baroque concerto and the music of Bach, Corelli, and Frescobaldi. Respighi later shortened the piece, but the original version heard on this program is more widely performed.
The first movement is all hustle and bustle, with orchestra and organ alternating in the manner of a Baroque concerto grosso. While the musical style doesn’t allow for the kind of coloristic touches we associate with Rimsky-Korsakov, the lushness of the string writing – with the sections frequently divided in two – displays the depth to which Respighi assimilated his teacher’s lessons.
Respighi was particularly fond of the poignant second movement. It’s arranged from an earlier work, the 1901 Aria for strings; and he also used the theme in his 1905 Suite for Flute and Strings No. 2. It’s a lovely melody, spun out seamlessly to great length: an outpouring of sadness. We easily hear the three-part form through the key scheme of G minor/G major/G minor.
The pensive Pastorale looks back even further, to the early Baroque of Frescobaldi. Atypically for a suite, it’s in a different key: D minor instead of G. (The D major ending sets up the finale more dramatically than G major would have.) Here the strings are not only subdivided, but they are frequently muted as well, creating an almost other-worldly sound. The organ participates as a solemn commentator.
The finale’s opening – Puccini-esque slabs of parallel chords – is the suite’s least Baroque theme. But the second theme, introduced in octaves in the strings, has contrapuntal potentialities worthy of Bach, and Respighi takes full advantage of them, building to a grand ending.
Overview: Howard Hanson
Born: October 28, 1896, Wahoo, Nebraska; died February 26, 1981, Rochester, New York
Work Composed: 1923, 1926, 1941
Why It Matters: A rarely heard work by an American Romantic
American classical music has had few champions as energetic and passionate as Howard Hanson. He sponsored concerts devoted to American music and festivals of American music; as a conductor, he championed not just his own music, but that of numerous other American composers. He was director of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester for 40 years, during which time it became one of the nation’s finest music schools – and hosted premiers of over 2,000 American compositions by some 500 composers.
American classical music has not repaid Hanson’s devotion. Of his seven symphonies, only the second, subtitled “Romantic,” has found a durable place in the repertoire. Student ensembles still perform his expertly crafted pieces, but they’re rare in concert halls.
This may be nothing more than inertia: Musicologist Walter Simmons has written of Hanson that he “was a bold and outspoken advocate of music as a euphonious vehicle for untrammeled emotional expression during a period when the new-music community had become hostile to such a point of view,” and a lot of Hanson’s music has simply not had much opportunity to catch on. But for whatever reason, Hanson’s unabashed romanticism has not resonated with contemporary audiences the way Samuel Barber’s has.
The concerto you hear today is the third and final version of a piece that began in 1923 as North and West, a tone poem for chorus and orchestra. Three years later, Hanson recast the piece as a concerto for organ and large orchestra; in 1941 he revised it again into the version on this program – not due to any defects in the concerto, but simply to expand the number of venues in which it could be performed.
Like many of Hanson’s works, this concerto is in a single movement with several contrasting sections. The dimensions are modest: Despite its many moods, not only is it shorter than any concerto by Mozart or Beethoven, but it’s shorter even than the first movements of some Beethoven concertos. It has many characteristics of Hanson’s best work: spontaneity, approachability, and an almost cinematic lushness of emotion.
The most jarring harmonies are heard near the beginning, as the calm, undulating harp is overwhelmed by stabbing dissonances in the strings, against which the organ presents the first of the two main themes, a quiet motif that insistently climbs.
The strings win out, but they lead not to the sort of angst-ridden theme that this conflict might cause a listener to expect, but to a warm climax followed by the piece’s lovely, languid second theme, also presented by the organ. The following organ cadenza is based on a variant of the first theme; this kind of variation allows Hanson to provide variety without sacrificing musical coherence. Next comes a jaunty allegro that begins with an almost Latin American 3+2+3 rhythm; a dramatic organ cadenza; a solemn slow movement; a march-like passage; and finally, after overcoming a sense of harmonic resistance, a triumphant conclusion in an unexpected key.
Overview: Charles-Marie Widor
Born: Feb. 21, 1844; died March 12, 1937
Work Composed: 1894
Why It Matters: The most widely heard orchestral work from an expert French composer
Widor was the 19th Century’s most important organist, and among its most important composers of organ music. He was organist at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris – one of the most prestigious organ jobs in France – for nearly 64 years, from 1870 until his retirement in 1933. (Recordings from Saint-Sulpice in 1932 show the 88-year-old Widor in fine shape.) Beginning in 1890, he also taught at the Paris Conservatory, where his students included many of the next generation’s most important organists, including Marcel Dupré, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, and Albert Schweitzer.
Widor will always be linked to Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the 19th Century’s most influential organ-builder. Cavaillé-Coll was a close friend of Widor’s father, and helped the son with his education. For his part, Widor made full use of Cavaillé-Coll’s innovations, inspired by Saint-Sulpice’s magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ.
It’s not surprising that Widor’s organ compositions are his best known. But as this symphony shows, his orchestral writing was equally assured.
The piece is in two movements, with each movement itself divided in two – an obvious homage to Camille Saint-Saens’s famous Organ Symphony of 1886. (Saint-Saens himself first used this formal conception in his Piano Concerto No. 4 of 1875.) The two movements mimic a traditional four-movement form, with the first movement containing the allegro and the adagio, and the second movement containing the scherzo and finale. Also reminiscent of Saint-Saens is the piece’s cyclical form in which themes from the first movement recur in the second.
Even more so than Saint-Saens’s symphony, this is a symphony with organ, and not an organ concerto: The organ part is challenging, but not at all spectacular, and the instrument is silent for long stretches. Following Berlioz’s advice, Widor is more likely to juxtapose the organ and orchestra than to blend them – even to the extent of having them trade off phrases of different thematic material, different expressive character, and different tempos.
In its content, the symphony is more reminiscent of Berlioz than of Saint-Saens. (Widor’s knowledge of Berlioz’s music was so extensive that he published his own revision of Berlioz’s famous treatise on orchestration.) Widor presents four themes in short order: The first promptly disappears until the second movement; the second and third themes – a somewhat Wagnerian horn call and a lyrical woodwind chorale – are used in both movements; and the fourth theme will dominate the first movement. Musicologist Daniel Barbello describes this stormy string motif as “a sweeping, unmelodic, but motivically striking theme.” It’s developed vigorously and dramatically for several minutes. There’s a traditional sonata form lurking under the surface, but it’s not presented with the lucidity typical of Saint-Saens; listeners are advised simply to let the music unfold, and trust that it will make sense.
The drama subsides into the movement’s second half, a lyrical and ruminative adagio that expands on the woodwind chorale and also incorporates elements of the movement’s main theme. It’s the part of the symphony that makes the deepest impression on first hearing.
The second movement begins with a scherzo in 6/8 time (two beats, each divided into thirds) and A-B-A form. The organ is silent for this entire section, returning at the beginning of the final section with a triumphant statement of the first movement’s chorale theme. The jubilant mood soon subsides into lyricism, but with an underlying rhythmic energy. A massive crescendo leads to the climactic final statement of the chorale, singing out in the organ and brass over rhythmically charged strings and woodwinds.
Of Widor’s five orchestral symphonies, this is the most often performed; Widor himself chose it for his farewell program at Saint-Sulpice, with the composer conducting and Marcel Dupré at the organ.
Joseph Galema, organist
Joseph Galema is currently Principal Organist at First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, a position he has held since August 2014. After serving as Music Director and Academy Organist at the United States Air Force Academy for almost 32 years, he retired in July 2014. While at the Academy, he was music director for the Cadet Chorale, the Protestant Cadet Choir, and The Academy Singers, in addition to playing for hundreds of annual services and tours held in the famous Cadet Chapel.
He joined the Lamont School of Music of the University of Denver as organ instructor in September 2008. At Lamont, he teaches private lessons to organ majors in addition to classes in organ repertoire, organ improvisation, and organ accompanying.
Joe was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, and chose to pursue his college education in Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Calvin College in Grand Rapids. His post-graduate work in organ performance was at The University of Michigan, studying with Marilyn Mason, and earning both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees.
A critically-acclaimed organ soloist, Joe has toured throughout the United States, England, France, Scandinavia, and the Baltic States.
Joseph Galema is currently Principal Organist at First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, a position he has held since August 2014. After serving as Music Director and Academy Organist at the United States Air Force Academy for almost 32 years, he retired in July 2014. While at the Academy, he was music director for the Cadet Chorale, the Protestant Cadet Choir, and The Academy Singers, in addition to playing for hundreds of annual services and tours held in the famous Cadet Chapel.
He joined the Lamont School of Music of the University of Denver as organ instructor in September 2008. At Lamont, he teaches private lessons to organ majors in addition to classes in organ repertoire, organ improvisation, and organ accompanying.
Joe was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, and chose to pursue his college education in Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Calvin College in Grand Rapids. His post-graduate work in organ performance was at The University of Michigan, studying with Marilyn Mason, and earning both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees.
A critically-acclaimed organ soloist, Joe has toured throughout the United States, England, France, Scandinavia, and the Baltic States.
Deke Polifka, organist
Deke Polifka has been Organist and Choirmaster at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church since 2006. He directs a comprehensive choir program, serves as principal organist, and oversees the longstanding Taylor Memorial Concert Series. In addition to his duties at Grace, he serves as Assistant Conductor of the Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble and maintains a small studio of piano and organ students. Deke holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance and chamber music from the Catholic University of America in Washington, d.c. He recently completed the Artist Diploma in Organ Performance at the University of Denver, where he was a student of Joseph Galema. In 2013, he spent a summer sabbatical in France, playing many of the significant instruments in and around Paris and studying French organ repertoire with Marie-Louise Langlais. An active performer, Deke has presented organ recitals in venues such as the National Cathedral in Washington, d.c., and has been featured in national conferences of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts, and the Association of Anglican Musicians. In past seasons, he has collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra in performances of the Poulenc Concerto and Joseph Schwantner’s September Canticle. Deke is an Associate of the American Guild of Organists and has served in various leadership positions for the Colorado Springs Chapter. When not rehearsing, directing, or performing, Deke can be found with his wife and three children – hiking, skiing, and cooking.
Deke Polifka has been Organist and Choirmaster at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church since 2006. He directs a comprehensive choir program, serves as principal organist, and oversees the longstanding Taylor Memorial Concert Series. In addition to his duties at Grace, he serves as Assistant Conductor of the Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble and maintains a small studio of piano and organ students. Deke holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance and chamber music from the Catholic University of America in Washington, d.c. He recently completed the Artist Diploma in Organ Performance at the University of Denver, where he was a student of Joseph Galema. In 2013, he spent a summer sabbatical in France, playing many of the significant instruments in and around Paris and studying French organ repertoire with Marie-Louise Langlais. An active performer, Deke has presented organ recitals in venues such as the National Cathedral in Washington, d.c., and has been featured in national conferences of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts, and the Association of Anglican Musicians. In past seasons, he has collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra in performances of the Poulenc Concerto and Joseph Schwantner’s September Canticle. Deke is an Associate of the American Guild of Organists and has served in various leadership positions for the Colorado Springs Chapter. When not rehearsing, directing, or performing, Deke can be found with his wife and three children – hiking, skiing, and cooking.
Eric Wicks, organist
Eric Wicks serves as organist at the First Lutheran Church in downtown Colorado Springs. He received his Master’s Degree in organ performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Todd Wilson. He also studied harpsichord with Janina Ceaser, piano with Olga Radosavljevich, eurhythmics with David Brown, and early music performance practice with Ross Duffin. While in Cleveland, Eric joined Elisa in performing baroque programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and in house concerts at the home of Phillip Cucchiara, a harpsichord builder. As an organist, Eric previously served at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Kennewick, Washington; St Peter’s Episcopal in Lakewood, Ohio; Old Stone Church (First Presbyterian) in Cleveland, Ohio; Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, Ohio; and, from 2004 to 2012, First United Methodist in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Eric Wicks serves as organist at the First Lutheran Church in downtown Colorado Springs. He received his Master’s Degree in organ performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Todd Wilson. He also studied harpsichord with Janina Ceaser, piano with Olga Radosavljevich, eurhythmics with David Brown, and early music performance practice with Ross Duffin. While in Cleveland, Eric joined Elisa in performing baroque programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and in house concerts at the home of Phillip Cucchiara, a harpsichord builder. As an organist, Eric previously served at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Kennewick, Washington; St Peter’s Episcopal in Lakewood, Ohio; Old Stone Church (First Presbyterian) in Cleveland, Ohio; Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, Ohio; and, from 2004 to 2012, First United Methodist in Butler, Pennsylvania.