Organ performance and Workshop with Q & A.

On May 17th at 4pm the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts will present the acclaimed Rhonda Sider Edgington in a recital on the newly renovated organ at the historical Union Church. Following the performance will be an educational program where the audience can interact with the performer and learn more about the organ as an instrument. Admission by donation, reception to follow.

The program, “Modern Music For A Modern Age,” explores the last century of organ music, proving that there is much more to this instrument than people might imagine. With pieces from England, Estonia, the Czech Republic, and the United States, and ranging from Eben’s Sunday Music of 1957 to Farrington’s Animal Parade of 2007, this program is full of music that is contemporary yet understandable. It contains pieces solidly in the mold of traditional compositional practices, written by composers breathing new life into these forms, using modern rhythms (such as in Hampton’s Dances or Eben’s Moto Ostinato), modern harmonies (Sandresky’s Sacred Dances or Leighton’s Fanfare), or modern melodies (Pärt’s Annum per annum or Sandresky’s Sacred Dances).

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Work to be performed on the “Modern Music for a Modern Age” program include:

Kenneth Leighton, Fanfare
Bernard Wayne Sanders, Rhapsody on Two Southern Harmonies
Libby Larsen, Tambourines from Aspects of Glory
Petr Eben, Moto Ostinato (from Sunday Music)
Arvo Pärt, Annun per annum
Iain Farrington, selections from Animal Parade
Margaret Sandresky, selections from Five Sacred Dances
Calvin Hampton, At the Ballet and Everyone Dance, from Five Dances

Equally adept in the Baroque tradition of northern Germany, the French organ literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, and contemporary organ music, Rhonda Sider Edgington displays skill and mastery in her performances, matched only by her lyrical insight.