Have you ever met with a “Bridezilla” who wanted things exactly HER way, or no other way?

Were you ever unsure as to whether a certain piece of music was appropriate to be played at a church wedding?

Have you ever had trouble finding a soloist or an instrumentalist for a wedding?

Are you interested in hearing some stories your fellow chapter members have to share about weddings they have played?

Would you like to share a piece you use at weddings with your chapter members or listen to pieces your other colleagues find useful for weddings?

Please mark your calendar for our chapter’s next event, a Wedding Music Workshop led by chapter member David Tighe, on Monday, May 20 at 6:30 p.m. at Holy Rosary Church, 127 Stephenson Street in Duryea.

We will begin with Evening Prayer at 6:30 p.m. in the church. The meeting will follow. We will discuss some of the issues a church organist may face when playing for a wedding, regardless of the church’s denomination. Additional details will follow as the event approaches.

Whether you’ve played many weddings or only a few, or are dreading the thought of being called for your first wedding as a church organist, this is an event you won’t want to miss. Refreshments will be served after the meeting/discussion. Our evening should conclude no later than 8:30 p.m.

If you plan on attending, please call Mike Sowa, Co-Dean, at (570) 881-2301 or email dean@agopane.org.

The pipe organ has been called the “King of Instruments.” The sounds of the pipe organ have inspired worshippers for centuries. Great composers have written countless works for the instrument. Pipe organs have been installed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls and theaters. The American Guild of Organists is passionate about the pipe organ and we want to share our love with a new generation.

Join us on Sunday, April 21, 2013 at St. Matthew’s United Evangelical Lutheran Church, corner of Jefferson Avenue and Vine Street, Scranton, from 2:00 – 4:00 PM for our second Pedals, Pipes, and Pizza. Participants will receive a behind the scenes tour of the instrument in addition to a chance to play it themselves (and eat some pizza!). All are welcome to attend. Students currently studying the piano are encouraged to bring a piece to play on the organ.

Presenters for the event are Michael Sowa and Raphael Micca, local organists with backgrounds in music education and church music.

TO REGISTER FOR PEDALS, PIPES, AND PIZZA, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Since the 1920s, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral, South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, has been host to an annual ecumenical Lenten series of services and organ recitals for downtown Wilkes-Barre and its surrounding communities. The 2013 Series continues this coming Wednesday, February 20th, with an organ recital at 11:30 AM, followed by an ecumenical Lenten Service at 12:00 PM.

As in past years, the 2013 Lenten series will involve clergy, musicians, and laity from Catholic and Protestant churches throughout Wilkes-Barre and the Wyoming Valley. A soup and sandwich lunch is served each week following the Lenten Service, with a suggested donation of $4.00 per person. Members of the participating congregations are the hosts for these lunches. Offerings received at this year’s services and lunches will support the Men’s Homeless Shelter in Wilkes-Barre.

This Wednesday’s Organ Recital at 11:30 AM will be presented by Peter Stoltzfus Berton, a native of Wilkes-Barre who grew up in Lancaster PA. Mr. Berton studied at The University of Michigan School of Music and the Yale University School of Music. Integral to his training as a church musician was serving as Assistant Organist at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit, Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven CT, and Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City. His principal teachers have been David Bartlett, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, Charles Krigbaum, Walden Moore, Thomas Murray and Carl E. Schroeder. Prior to becoming Music Director of St. John’s Episcopal Church, West Hartford CT in 2010, he held music director positions at All Saints’ Church, Worcester MA, Christ Episcopal Church, Los Altos CA, and Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn Heights NY. He is active as a composer, choral clinician, organ recitalist and recording artist (JAV Recordings), and is a singing member of and organist for Mastersingers USA, a men’s touring ensemble.

The Service at 12 noon will be led by The Reverend Daniel C. Gunn, Rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre. The preacher will be The Reverend Dr. Robert Zanicky, Pastor of The First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre. Special music will be presented by Ellen Rutkowski, mezzo-soprano, and led by St. Stephen’s Organist and Choirmaster, Canon Mark Laubach.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral, 35 South Franklin Street, Wilkes-Barre, will celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the dedication of its Berghaus pipe organ with a concert by renowned organist Ken Cowan on Sunday, March 10 at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $15.00 and $10.00 for students, senior citizens (65+), and WVIA members. Tickets may be purchased at the door or from the St. Stephen’s office Monday through Thursday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Ken Cowan is one of North America’s finest concert organists and is praised by audiences and critics alike for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique and imaginative programming. His recent performances include appearances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, Spivey Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. He is also featured regularly in concerts and at organ conventions throughout the world, most notably at the conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

It was Cowan’s musicality, technical mastery, expertise in transcriptions of orchestral works and creative programming that led Canon Mark Laubach to select him as the perfect organist to highlight the anniversary the Berghaus pipe organ. In a recent concert review, Scott Cantrell of The Dallas Morning News wrote, “Cowan was at his most dazzling in transcriptions of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1. Sounds shifted, swelled and diminished in apparently limitless variety, all while Cowan dispatched dizzying arrays of notes.”

In 2000, the “Polish the Gem” Organ Campaign was officially heralded with a gala concert by the Choir of Westminster Abbey from London, England. The dedicated efforts of the many involved in the “Polish the Gem” Organ Campaign was completed in 2003 and resulted in the acquisition of a glorious new retrofitted Berghaus pipe organ, which has become the cornerstone of the music at St. Stephen’s.

A truly stunning instrument, the Berghaus pipe organ enhances the Anglican liturgical tradition as well as secular transcriptions. Purchasing a new or newly refurbished Berghaus pipe organ is a “once-in-a-lifetime” project and few churches have the opportunity to do so. Berghaus organs are designed as aural and visual masterpieces. They must be exciting to the ear as well as the eye and are built specific to the space they will occupy. Berghaus Pipe Organs were the founded in 1967 by Leonard G. Berghaus, a gifted educator and organist whose early passion for the pipe organ prompted him to seek out extensive training in the art of organ building with a special emphasis on tonal design, voicing and the various forms of key and stop actions.

St. Stephen’s Pro Cathedral was built in 1897 and consecrated in 1899. It is the fifth Church edifice built in the same location and was designed by Philadelphia architect Charles Marquedant Burns, Jr. (1838-1922). St. Stephen’s has a rich history and Anglican tradition. Current services are held on Sundays at 8 AM and 10:30 AM under the leadership of Father Daniel Gunn. This concert is presented by the Music at St. Stephen’s Committee.

After watching the weather forecast and seeing that the height of the snowstorm will be tonight into tomorrow morning, we are canceling the chapter meeting which was originally scheduled for Saturday morning at 11:30 at Terry’s Diner in Moosic.

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.

The Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter is excited to announce an upcoming recital by 17 year old organist Karen Electra Christianson on Sunday, November 4 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral in downtown Wilkes-Barre. The concert will begin at 3:00 p.m. Mark your calendars now; this is a recital you won’t want to miss!

The Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter of the American Guild of Organists is sponsoring a workshop entitled “The Organ in Catholic Liturgy” on Monday, October 8 at 7:00 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, 35 William Street, Pittston. The workshop will provide both practical and liturgical advice for organists, priests, music directors, and interested laity regarding the organ role’s in the Sacred Liturgy.

According to the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “…the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to higher things.” Participants in the workshop will discover why the Church holds the organ in such high esteem, how it can be used to its fullest potential at Mass and other liturgical services, and how the AGO can support and sustain the ministry of organists and musicians in Catholic parishes today, whether you have a pipe organ or an electronic organ.

The workshop is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Raphael Micca, co-dean of the AGO chapter, at 570-301-9253 or email rdmicca@aol.com.

Mark Miller, concert organist and composer, will perform at East Stroudsburg United Methodist Church, 87 South Courtland St., on Sunday September 16 at 3:00 p.m. This program concludes our 2012 Organ Series.

Titled “Bach and Roll: Baroque to Gospel”, selections include classic, gospel and sacred pieces utilizing contemporary Midi capabilities of the instrument as well as standard sounds. Mark also invited local jazz sax artist Joe Dorsch to join him for 2 numbers, and local singers will present his choral tribute in memory of his sister.

Miller currently serves on the music faculties of Drew University and of Yale University. He has performed concerts and directed conferences in the USA for the United Methodist Church and has played internationally in 8 countries. He is currently Minister of Music for Christ Church in Summit, NJ, and has also been Assistant Organist at Riverside Church and Director of Contemporary Worship at the Marble Collegiate Church, both in New York City.

Miller describes his work as “characteristically American,” reflecting elements of classical, gospel, jazz, and folk styles. His Christmas “Toccata”, recorded on Gothic’s label, has been featured on National Public Radio’s “Pipe Dreams”. His work “Let Justice Roll: Song from a Birmingham Jail”, was featured on NBC’s program “Positively Black”, narrated by James Earl Jones. He is also the Composer-in-Residence for the Harmonium Choral Society, based in Morris County, NJ, which recently premiered a major commissioned work by him that appears on their new CD “Whitmania”. Miller and his band The Brooklyn Collective recently recorded a new CD, “Grace Abounds”.

The event is free, and open to the public. An informal reception will follow. For further information, email foxes@esumc.net.

To register, email Mike Sowa at dean@agopane.org.

Join members of the Pennsylvania Northeast Chapter of the American Guild of Organists for a Spring Gathering on Monday, May 7 at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre.

The evening begins with an open house at 6:30 p.m. giving members of the chapter and the wider community a chance to tour the historic edifice. At 7:00 p.m. Canon Mark Laubach will present a program of hymns and organ music showcasing St. Clement’s pipe organ. A reception will follow in the Parish House. All are welcome to attend this free event. We hope to see you there!

The pipe organ has been called the “King of Instruments.” The sounds of the pipe organ have inspired worshippers for centuries. Great composers have written countless works for the instrument. Pipe organs have been installed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls and theaters. The American Guild of Organists is passionate about the pipe organ and we want to share our love with a new generation.

Join us on Sunday, March 25, 2012 at St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception in Wilkes-Barre from 2:00 – 4:00 PM for Pedals, Pipes, and Pizza. Participants will receive a behind the scenes tour of the instrument in addition to a chance to play it themselves (and eat some pizza!). All are welcome to attend. Students currently studying the piano are encouraged to bring a piece to play on the organ.

Presenters for the event are Michael Sowa and Raphael Micca, local organists with backgrounds in music education and church music. Mark Ignatovich, Organist and Director of Music at St. Mary’s, is the host.

TO REGISTER FOR PEDALS, PIPES, AND PIZZA, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Saint Thomas Choir School, New York, will host an Open House for interested musicians, clergy and families on Sunday, February 19, 2012.

Choristers and their parents will give tours of the school and teachers will host visitors in the classrooms to answer questions about the curriculum and student life. At 3:00 PM, visiting boys will rehearse, vest and sit in the choir stalls with the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys for evensong. Please contact Ruth Cobb at 212-247-3311, Ext. 304 for further information or to reserve a place.