Organist Sarah Davies, a member of the Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter, AGO, and Mezzo-Soprano Elise Quagliata will present a program of “Bach and Several Remarkable Women” on the Brunzema-Casavant organ at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton on Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 2:00 p.m.

Part of the Cathedral’s new Sacred Concert Series, the program features the great Bach “Prelude and Fugue in B minor” (BWV 544) and “Cantata 169” with an organ obbligato Bach wrote for his own performance. Remarkable women celebrated in this performance are St. Cecilia, patron saint of music, in works by Clemens non Papa and Palestrina, the latter in a setting by Paix; the Biblical Susanna, immortalized by Lupi, Lasso and Ammerbach; the classical heroine Arianna, forever identified with Monteverdi’s famous dramatic lament; and the Virgin Mary, whose outcry to the angel Gabriel is enshrined in Purcell’s “Expostulation.” Other memorable works by Purcell include “Dido’s Lament,” “Solitude” by the poet Katherine Philips, and the D-minor Voluntary, a work reflecting the harmonic freedom and virtuosity of the earlier Toccata by the Roman organist, Paulo Quagliati.

Dr. Davies is a musicologist as well as performer, and has given numerous papers at international and American conferences; she has also been heard in recital on historic and historically-based organs in Europe and the U.S. Ms. Quagliata has been critically acclaimed by the New York Times, Opera News and a variety of reviewers for the dramatic range and beauty of her voice, on the opera stage, with orchestra and in recital.

Tickets are $10 for adults. Children 12 and under are free. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling 570-344-7231 or they may be purchased at the door.