Wowin’ ‘em in Wichita
Region VI AGO Convention
Jim Hejduk

From the lavishly printed and seemingly typo-free program book, through the elegant headquarters hotel ($20/night more expensive than our Cornhusker Marriott rates of 2007 but including great daily breakfasts and a $1 drink coupon thrown in), punctuated by hearty and tasty luncheons, dinners, and blessedly brief bus rides to the final “dueling harpists” banquet, former Lincoln chapter member Marlene Halstrom and her convention committee packed in four very interesting days for Region VI attendees.
The big attraction for me was the 1986, IV/84 rank Marcussen organ in Wiedemann Hall at Wichita State University. Our Tuesday morning began with a 9 AM recital by our Regional Councillor Jan Kraybill. In preparation for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the installation of the 113 rank Aeolian-Skinner organ at the Auditorium of the Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) in Independence, MO, Jan is replicating Catharine Crozier’s dedicatory recital and played that program for us. Imagine hearing the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue, the Dupré Variations on a Noel, and the Reubke Sonata on Psalm 94 that early in the morning. Now imagine playing those pieces then (or at any hour!) one right after the other! Jan made us proud with an assured performance that she will continue burnishing until her November 6th recital date on the Independence Aeolian-Skinner. The Marcussen certainly lives up to its billing as a striking instrument in a very lively acoustic. Oddly, I found the seats a bit cramped (although admittedly I’m hardly sylph-like) and after that recital made sure I sat in the front row at subsequent programs.
I continued on to a workshop by Burton Tidwell in Grace Chapel on campus about the influence of Lawrence Phelps in the organ building world from his teen-aged exposure to the then oddly cobbled together “baroque” organ in Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum, through an apprenticeship with G. Donald Harrison (who basically put him in charge of the installation of the Aeolian-Skinner at The Mother Church in Boston at age 29), his association with Casavant and his later attempt at forming his own short-lived company ending his career as an independent consultant who capped his life’s work with a rebuilding and enhancement of his beloved Mother Church organ with advice and counsel from his wife, Gillian Weir. Tidwell concluded by playing a brief set of variations on Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland by Karen Keene to show the versatility of the small (2 manual, 15 stop, 18 rank) electro-pneumatic Casavant in the chapel which Phelps had designed.
After a box lunch, I attended Robert Town’s engrossing narrative of the story of “The Great Marcussen Organ” back in Wiedemann Hall. While Town’s personal involvement of massaging and ultimately securing funds from Gladys Wiedemann (with both help and occasional hindrance from university officials and trustees) was captivating, even galvanizing as it unfolded, what struck me most forcefully was that the overwhelming majority of this legendary pedagogue’s teaching career was, in fact, carried out on that little Casavant across the street in Grace Chapel! To call the arrival of the Marcussen in Wichita a capstone to a brilliant career would be a true understatement. The fact that Town also secured an endowment for an impressive concert series was similarly noteworthy. Following Town’s warmly received talk, well-known church music composer John Leavitt took the Wiedemann stage for a run-through of several noteworthy and useable choral anthems.
Back at the hotel conference center, Marlene Halstrom oversaw a review of the region’s chapters’ IYO programming. Needless to say, Lincoln more or less stole the show with its presentation augmented with the announcement that Tom Trenney will soon be counted as one of our members and the follow-up recital by three of our POEA alumni this fall. But all the chapters did unique programs either large- or small-scaled and I was able to pick up several great ideas in the process. I always consider finding even one new anthem (from Leavitt, for example) or one new program idea to be a mark of success.
We bussed to the Roman Catholic cathedral for a sung Gregorian vesper service, and then walked across the street to First Presbyterian Church for a dinner. The church sits opposite the Lord's Diner, a gathering place for the city’s homeless population, so you don’t enter the church without being more or less locked in. Locked gates at the church’s main entrance offer another foreboding prospect. After our meal, we ascended to the sanctuary to hear the Wichita Chamber Chorale under Robert Glassman’s direction in a program of works ranging from Finzi’s familiar “God is gone up,” a beautiful 8-part a cappella Christmas motet by Mendelssohn, the Gloria from Vierne’s Messe Solennelle , Bach’s one-movement Cantata 118 and Laudes Organi by Kodaly. I was particularly happy to hear this final work as it was commissioned for and premiered at the 1966 AGO convention in Atlanta. David Josefiak was the very accomplished accompanist on a hybrid Reuter/Rodgers IV/50 of no particular distinction. Like most hybrids, it sounded more electronic than “pipey.”
Tired yet? And this was only Tuesday! On Wednesday morning I attended Robert Glassman’s workshop (and fond remembrances) of Robert Fountain’s warm-ups and approaches to voice building in the choir room at Plymouth Congregational Church. Glassman provided an excellent hand-out, worked with our rag-tag assemblage and achieved some quite marvelous results in our sound and blend. Interestingly, Dr. Glassman rehearses the WSU Concert Chorale in Wiedemann Hall and, though he loves it, he admitted “it can cover up a multitude of sins” with its lively acoustic.
Then up to the sanctuary we went to hear a first-rate program by Frances Shelly, flute professor at WSU and old U. of Michigan buddy Steven Egler. Having known Steve when he spent a sabbatical year at UNL studying with George and Quentin (as well as Charles Ore), it was great to see and hear him. Combining one of music’s smaller instruments with its biggest could be a tricky affair balance-wise, but these two are consummate pros. Most fascinating is that all the music was new to my ears. Especially captivating was the Suite, Op. 34 for flute and organ by Widor along with interesting works by Moonyeen Albrecht, Bernard Wayne Sanders, and WSU professor Dean Roush.
Egler himself played the Passacaglia and Carillon by Gerald Near, the latter based on what we know as the Russian carol “Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells…” and alluringly accessible sounding (as in “Hmmmm, I bet I could play that!”). The duo ended with Dan Locklair’s Sonata da Chiesa.
That afternoon, the Lincoln delegation licking our chops in anticipatory glee, we headed to East Heights United Methodist to hear our own Michael Emmerich, THE REGIONAL COMPETITION WINNER, play his winner’s recital on a Phelps 1960 IV/56 Casavant. Michael opened leading the assembled in a sturdy and imaginatively harmonized "All creatures of our God and King" and continued on with a poetic "Serene Alleluias" by Messiaen, a spot-on Bach D Major Prelude and Fugue (garnering him a repeated bow from the audience), a moving and orchestrally registered De profundis.. by Herbert Howells and concluding with the first movement of the Widor Symphonie V. Michael was accorded a richly deserved standing ovation and graciously greeted well-wishers the rest of the week. He also took home a $1K check for his stunning efforts. On to Washington in 2010!
Immediately following was a gospel music workshop that was, in fact, a concert and, as is often the case, bore no resemblance whatsoever to the printed program but had everyone clapping along enthusiastically. We continued on to a sumptuous meal at Eastminster Presbyterian Church (our reward prior to the regional business meeting) and the awarding of the first ever Region VI honoree for distinguished service to our own Quentin Faulkner. Quentin’s response and thanks were in the form of a video interview held in front of the console of his and Mary Murrell’s Bedient organ in their home in Amherst, MA. Using a question-answer format, the interviewer posed several questions which Quentin answered cogently and inspiringly with unbounded gratitude. Truth be told, ours having become an overwhelmingly video age, the audience was probably more mesmerized by Quentin’s larger-than-life appearance on-screen than had he appeared live! The only drawback was that convention officials had to throw a tarp over the Lincoln delegation because our prideful glowing over Quentin and Michael Emmerich’s awards were having an adverse effect on the projected image before us.
We adjourned to the sanctuary to hear Clive Driscoll-Smith, assistant organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and Joseph Gramley, professor of percussion at the University of Michigan and known as Organized Rhythm present a stunning concert of music for organ and percussion (Dare I suggest that had this been a percussionists’ convention, the foregoing would have been billed as “for percussion and organ”?). There were stunning arrangements of music by Gustav Holst, Pierre Cochereau, Peter Eben and Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals with Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring thrown in for good measure. Seeing the vast array of percussion instruments spread across the very wide chancel area, one is tempted to ask “I wonder how many times this guy wishes he’d taken up the flute?” While Driscoll-Smith obviously had big-time “chops” as a partnering organist, I’d have loved to hear him play at least one solo piece. Perhaps needing to be sensitive as an accompanist, I nonetheless felt that the 1988 III/42 Visser-Rowland didn’t really pack much of a punch.
We’ve made it! Thursday! My first event was Anna Myeong’s recital on the III/71 Beckerath at Holy Cross Lutheran Church. Installed in the rear gallery, the listeners were provided with a screen on the chancel which utilized several camera shots/views to augment our listening experience. OK, here’s my pet peeve about “screened” organists. Why does it always seem that the person operating the camera is usually clueless about the music? In other words, we get shots of the organist’s hands when all the action is in the pedal and vice versa? Can’t someone who actually knows the score or can read music and anticipate those shots (like on PBS orchestral broadcasts) be sitting up there too? (Ed. note: the same was true with the opening hymn festival at First United Methodist Church) That aside, Ms. Myeong is a player with technique to burn but, alas, a certain amount of musicality is sacrificed on the altar of speed. The program was rife with barn-burners (Dubois Fiat Lux, the Dupré Cortege et Litanie, and the fiendishly difficult but arresting Cinq versets sur le Victimae Paschali by Thierry Escaich) and ended with the Liszt Ad nos , which I hope Ms. Myeong will live for many decades and refine, hone, and polish it. What it lacks now is the sweeping arch such a piece demands musically. Under her hands, it just sounds long. Hands only? She uses an edition that puts most of the most difficult pedal parts (as one finds in the Peters edition, for example) in the manuals instead. Leaving the church to a “Bell Tower Farewell,” we heard a set of 25 Van Bergen cast bronze bells playing “This land is your land” and “God bless America.” Talk about a slap in the face!
Brett Valliant, who so charmingly entertained us at our Lincoln convention at Westminster Presbyterian, played a varied program (operatic overtures, Sousa, Sibelius, Saint-Saens and pops) on the New York Paramount Theatre Wurlitzer in the Century II Exhibition Hall, a space having all the charm of a high-ceilinged roller rink but with a great theatre organ and acoustics. Brett is obviously a Wichita favorite with our group being augmented by a large contingent of elderly Wichitans (is that the right word??).
After our banquet, during which the duo-harpists favored us with, among other things, a transcription of the Franck Prelude, Fugue, et Variation as well as a movement from a Handel organ concerto and I told Dick Morris an Alice Chalifoux anecdote that practically sent him to the ER, we returned to Wiedemann Hall to hear resident organist Lynne Davis (yet another U. Mich. Alum!) perform a gala closing concert on the Marcussen. The air was buzzing and, again, our delegates were augmented by many Wichita concert-goers. Again, a screen was set up (and the organ in plain view, huh?) with much fussing by the A-V guys which always makes me very nervous. Davis swept on stage wearing a knee-length skirt and red stiletto heels that Joan Crawford would have killed for. She then opened with the Raison Vive le Roy which actually required practically nothing pedal-wise. Off she went, but returned in a pantsuit outfit bedecked with strips of hanging fabric and real organ shoes to continue her program which, in fact, used a lot of pedals. Her Bach Allein Gott… (BWV 663 from the Leipzig Chorales with the cantus firmus in the tenor) and Toccata (no fugue) in F were played in what would today be considered the “old” style – even down to using dog-eared Dupré editions! (Hear that whirring sound? If he were dead, that would be Robert Clark, her old Michigan teacher, spinning in his grave.)
The Franck Choral in B minor showed the versatility of the Marcussen and Davis’s registrations highlighted the work’s variations as well as the composer’s markings. The Alain Intermezzo is a wonderful piece too rarely played (except by Marie-Claire herself) and the Duruflé Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’ALAIN was the gratifying closer though slightly upset in the closing measures when Davis missed a toe stud which brought the piece to a less-than-perfect close. Lesson learned? Forget the piston or toe stud. Focus on the music itself. Without that final fortissimo, she’d have still ended triumphantly.
Here’s hoping the Wichita Guild members (and especially Marlene) are catching up on their sleep this week and abounding in well-deserved, pardonable pride. Bravissimi a tutti!