Experience an afternoon of musical artistry at The First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre, 97 South Franklin Street, on Sunday, September 13, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. with Hymns & Classics: A Piano & Organ Concert. Featuring Carl Ruck on organ and Alan Hack on piano, the program explores the depth of these two powerful instruments through a blend of sacred hymnody and classical masterworks. With moments of audience participation woven throughout, the concert invites listeners into both reflection and celebration.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.agopane.org or call the church office at 570-824-2478.

The First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter, American Guild of Organists, will present “Celebrate America: An Independence Day Concert” on Sunday, June 28 at 3:00 p.m. in the church’s sanctuary, located at 97 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre.

The program will feature organists Bernard Gardzalla, Canon Mark Laubach, and Carl Ruck, pianist Dr. Alan Hack, a brass quartet and percussion, and a mass choir under the direction of John M. Vaida. Repertoire includes Peter Wilhousky’s arrangement of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Mack Wilberg’s stirring “Anthem of Peace,” and Patrick Michael’s newly composed hymn for the United States’ semiquincentennial, “We the People of One Nation. Also participating is the professional vocal ensemble The Lyric Consort, which will perform three early American songs by William Billings: “America,” “When Jesus Wept,” and “Chester.”

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the church office at 570-824-2478.

The Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter, American Guild of Organists will present “Celebrate America: An Independence Day Concert” on Sunday, June 28 at 3:00 p.m. at The First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre, 97 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre.

The program will feature organists Bernard Gardzalla, Canon Mark Laubach, and Carl Ruck as well as pianist Dr. Alan Hack, percussionist Monica Spishock, a brass quartet, and a combined choir under the direction of John M. Vaida. Repertoire includes Peter Wilhousky’s arrangement of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Pamela and Joseph Martin’s “A Prayer for Our Time,” and Mack Wilberg’s stirring “Anthem of Peace”.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the church office at 570-824-2478.

King’s College will host a free public program on “The Organ and Catholic Liturgy” at the George & Giovita Maffei Family Commons, 29 West North Street, Wilkes-Barre on Monday, February 9, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.

The program is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and will feature a lecture by Fr. Michael B. Wurtz, C.S.C., S.L.D., Assistant Professor of Theology at King’s College and Secretary of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. A light reception will follow.

Fr. Michael B. Wurtz began teaching at King’s College in the Fall of 2019. After receiving his B.A. and M.Div. from the University of Notre Dame, he professed Final Vows in the Congregation of Holy Cross and was ordained a priest in 2004. He earned an M.A. in Liturgical Studies from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn. After briefly assisting in the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy and teaching in Notre Dame’s Theology Department, he began doctoral studies in Liturgical Studies at the Pontifical Anthenaeum of Sant’Anselmo, Rome. Fr. Wurtz regularly assists with sacraments at St. Thomas More Parish of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

For more information, please contact John Vaida, Dean, at 570-650-6459 or email Raphael Micca, Secretary, at rdmicca@agopane.org.

The Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter, American Guild of Organists will present “Celebrate America: An Independence Day Concert” on Sunday, June 29 at 3:00 p.m. at The First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre, 97 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre.

The program will feature organists Bernard Gardzalla, Canon Mark Laubach, and Carl Ruck as well as vocal soloist M. Moses Andradé, pianist Dr. Alan Hack, percussionist Monica Spishock, a brass quartet, and a combined choir under the direction of John M. Vaida. Repertoire includes Peter Wilhousky’s arrangement of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Pamela and Joseph Martin’s “A Prayer for Our Time,” and Mack Wilberg’s stirring “Anthem of Peace”.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the church office at 570-824-2478.

The Mass in B-minor was the last work Johann Sebastian Bach composed and compiled, finished in late 1749 just months before his death in 1750. It was never performed complete in his lifetime but was announced at the promise of its publication in 1818 as “The Greatest Musical Art Work of All Time and All People.”

This lecture will explore the ways in which Bach created a 27-section masterpiece, a Missa tota, on the five Ordinary texts of the Mass.  Near the end of his life, the composer assembled his 1733 Kyrie and Gloria (a Missa brevis) written for the Dresden court, reworked a Leipzig Sanctus from 1724, and repurposed the best of his cantatas with more original music for the Credo and Agnus Dei.

What Bach’s original intention or destination was for the B-minor Mass is not clear, but it seems he was in fact writing “for his neighbor” as his Christian duty, creating a Vermächtnis, or legacy. Bach must have been well aware of his own genius, and it was incumbent upon him, given a gift from God, to share it with the world. Bach scholar Christoph Wollf has described the Mass as a “summary,” with “its variety of styles, compositional devices, range of sonorities and high technical polish,” which “preserved the musical and artistic creed of its creator for posterity.”  

Sarah Davies, organist and musicologist with a PhD from New York University, is an independent scholar and performer now living in Miami. She has given papers on a range of Renaissance German and Swiss lute and organ topics at international and American musicology and interdisciplinary conferences dealing with theology, German studies, Reformation studies, iconography, iconoclasm, organology and the devil.  

For the past twenty years, she has been a frequent lecturer for the series Music at St. Luke’s (Choir of St. Luke’s in the Fields) in New York City, covering a wide variety of early vocal repertoire, and has also been a regular lecturer for the early music vocal ensemble Polyhymnia. Her ongoing work on the organ sermon, the organ as a sign of confessional identity and the organ as an object of iconoclasm has been published by the University of Regensburg (2022) the University of Leuven (2019) and the Liszt Academy, Budapest (2003). Her recent focus has been on forgotten and understudied 17th-century German organ tablatures in the United States.

As a performer, Sarah has been heard in recital on early and historic organs in Switzerland, Germany and France, as well as on the earliest organs made in America (Tannenberg and Doll). She was the organ soloist for the 10th Anniversary of the NEPA Bach Festival, performing Bach’s Clavierũbung III, and later performed the Schübler Chorales for the Festival.  At the Boston Early Music Festival, the Holland Festival and the Dufay Festival in Boston, she was featured in the 15th-century repertoire of the Buxheimer Orgelbuch.  

Sarah’s first encounter with Bach and the B-minor Mass was as a newborn, when her mother, the soprano Lila Sprunger Miller, to whose memory this lecture is dedicated, was playing the recording and preparing the solos for performances in New York. Hearing it again at the first Philadelphia Bach Festival in 1962 triggered remembrance and, as an organist, a lifelong commitment to the composer.

The First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter, American Guild of Organists, will present “Celebrate America: An Independence Day Concert” on Sunday, June 30 at 3:00 p.m. in the church’s sanctuary, located at 97 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre.

The program will feature organists Canon Mark Laubach and Carl Ruck, pianist Brian Farrell, vocal soloist M. Moses Andradé, a brass quartet, and a combined choir under the direction of John M. Vaida. Repertoire includes Peter Wilhousky’s arrangement of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Mack Wilberg’s stirring “Anthem of Peace,” and John Coates’ setting of the classic hymn “Amazing Grace”.

The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the church office at 570-824-2478.

You are cordially invited to “A Celebration of Music for the Month of November” at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, 315 Wyoming Avenue, Scranton on Friday, November 3 at 6:30 p.m. The program will feature music that celebrates some of this month’s liturgical themes including All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Saint Cecilia’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christ the King. Enjoy music for brass and organ, solos and duets performed by the Cathedral cantors, and congregational hymns. This event is free and open to the public, and is presented in conjunction with First Friday Scranton.

On Sunday, October 22 at 5:00 pm, a Choral Evensong (Rite One) will be offered at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 35 South Franklin Street, Wilkes Barre. St. Stephen’s Choir will be joined by local singer friends and guest singers from the Choirs of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Harleysville, PA and All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Princeton, NJ. Organist and Choirmaster Canon Mark Laubach will be assisted by Sue Ellen Echard (Minister of Music and Organist, COHS Harleysville) and Kevin O’Malia (Organist and Director of Music, All Saints’ Church, Princeton).

Choral music will feature compositions by Robert Lehman, George Mursell Garrett, Herbert Murrill, and Felix Mendelssohn. Organ music performed by Canon Laubach will include compositions by Max Reger, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, and Louis Vierne. Offerings of money, food, and clothing will support St. Stephen’s Food Pantry and Clothing Closet.