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Trinity Episcopal Church 44 East Market St. Bethlehem PA  18018-5989 610-867-4741

Music and The Arts at Trinity Church
Concert Series
2004-2005
The Music and Arts Committee at Trinity Church is pleased to announce the church's 2004-2005 concert season.  Please plan to join us for what promises to be an exciting year.

Click here for 2005-2006 Series Click here for Completed 2003-2004 Series Click here for Completed Concerts - 2002-2003 Series

Leo Abbott

Friday October 8, 2004 - 7:30 p.m. Leo Abbott Concert organist in recital Third annual "Beinema Concert" honoring Marvin Beinema, 1919-2004, organist-choirmaster at Trinity for 37 years. Marvin and Polly Beinema with Marilyn Keiser October 12, 2003

Leo Abbott is Music Director and Organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. A native of Boston, he is a graduate of the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School and the Chaloff School of Music. His teachers have included Theodore Marier, George Faxon, Clarence Watters and Flor Peeters in organ; Naji Hakim in improvisation; and Julius Chaloff in piano. He holds the Fellow and Choir Master certificates of the American Guild of Organists. Mr. Abbott has won first prizes in several international and national organ performance competitions, and was a finalist in the 1984 Grand Prix de Chartres competition in France. He has given recitals throughout the country and abroad. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross houses the 101-rank E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings Organ, Opus 801, built in 1875. Mr. Abbott's compact disc recording on this organ has received wide critical acclaim. The Massachusetts Historical Commission recently awarded a grant to the Cathedral for repairs and a replica console for the instrument, the largest remaining example of the builder's artistry.

Sunday November 21, 2004 - 3:00 p.m. "King David" by Arthur Honegger -- Trinity Choir and Guests -- Richard Schantz, Guest Conductor Jack Vickrey, Narrator Anneliese von Goerken, Linda Laubach and Paul Summerlin, Soloists Russell Jackson and Lorenz Maycher, Organists with "Fili Mi, Absalon" by Heinrich Schütz sung by Steve Derstine

Jack Vickrey

Richard Schantz conducted for 46 years before retiring as Director at Moravian College and Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, PA. His choirs performed in 18 states, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and 10 international tours in Europe, Russia, Israel and the Caribbean. He has been the conductor at 3 Moravian Festivals in the US and Canada. Moravian Choirs collaborated with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, the Duke Ellington Band (Sacred Service), the Lehigh University Band, and annually with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in Bethlehem and Philadelphia. Jack Vickrey was born in Chicago, Illinois, but was raised in Riverside, a Chicago suburb, where he attended public schools (and also the local Episcopal church, St. Paul's).   He was in the U.S. Army from June '43 to February '46; overseas in Belgium and Germany from Nov. '44 to August '45.   His collegiate education: a year at the University of Michigan (1942-43), and later at the University of Chicago (Ph.B. 1949, M.A. 1952) and Indiana University (Ph.D. 1960).   He taught in the English departments of Rutgers University (1957-1961) and Lehigh University (1961-95).   His academic specialties at Lehigh were 1) Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature and 2) History of the English Language.  He has published about thirty articles, mostly on Old English poems (principally Genesis, Exodus, The Seafarer, and Beowulf), and continues work on other papers.   For many years Jack has given poetry readings to academic and other audiences, sometimes with, sometimes without, the accompaniment of music.  He has collaborated with Carol Thompson, harpist, in many presentations of poems, ranging from Anglo-Saxon to modern English; several years ago they made a CD "Wild Swans" with poems of G. M. Hopkins, Tennyson, (Dylan) Thomas, and W. B. Yeats.

Sunday
December 18, 2004 - 7:30 p.m.
"Amahl and the Night Visitors"
by Gian Carlo Menotti
with
Linda Laubach and Lauren Cupples
Paul Summerlin and Steve Derstine
Trinity Church Choir
Laura Johnson, director
Lorenz Maycher, organist

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Sunday
February 20, 2005 - 3:00 p.m.
Susan Charlton, flutist
and
Charles Callahan, organist

A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Susan Charlton earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Wisconsin. Her principal teachers include Robert Cole, Robert Goodberg, and Mary Roberts Wilson; and she has performed in master classes given by Julius Baker, Paula Robison and Thomas Nyfenger. She has held principal flute positions with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Waterloo Festival Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra and the Ambrosian Wind Quintet, and was a finalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Locally, Ms. Charlton has performed with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, Bach Festival Orchestra, Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, Pennsylania Sinfonia and various chamber music ensembles, including frequent collaborations with pianist Alexis Firstenberg Fisher. She has held the positions of Instructor of Flute and Director of Wind Chamber Ensembles at Lafayette College since 1992 and also maintains a flute studio in Easton, PA. Charles Callahan is one of America's leading organist-composers. A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he had the distinction of being the last pupil of legendary organ instructor Alexander McCurdy. Well-known as an improviser, he made his debut in this realm at the International Eucharistic Congress in 1976. In 1977, the Belgian ministry of Culture awarded him a grant to study with the renowned organist-composer, Flor Peeters. Upon returning to the United States, Dr. Callahan earned his graduate degrees from the Catholic University of America. In addition, he has studied organ with Theodore Marier, George Faxon, Clarence Watters, William Watkins and Daniel Roth. Dr. Callahan has conducted frequent European organ concert tours, performing in such notable sites as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral. His early performing career was highlighted by appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, at the White House, and by his complete Franck organ works series given in 1979 at Washington D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Dr. Callahan has served as organist, teacher, conductor and composer-in-residence at Middlebury College in Vermont and Rollins College in Florida. Since 1986, he has been involved in the design of many important new American pipe organs, and he has become one of the most recognizable names in American church music, with scores of choral and instrumental compositions now in print from leading publishers. His orchestral music has been premiered by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and his numerous commissions include works written for the Harvard University Choir and the choir of St. Patrick's Cathedral. In recognition of his service to the Catholic Church and his commissioned compositions for Papal visits to the United States, he was awarded in 1999 the Papal Honor of Knighthood in the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. In addition to compositions and performances, Charles Callahan is a noted educator and author. His two books on American organ building, "The American Classic Organ", and "Aeolian-Skinner Remembered" have become standard reference works. He is frequently in demand as a consultant for organ projects and his work in this area includes significant instruments for the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, St. Agnes Cathedral, Long Island, NY, All Saints Church in Buffalo, NY, First United Methodist Church in Beaumont, TX, and his alma mater, Curtis Institute. He has established his studio and home in rural Vermont.

Saturday March 5, 2005 - 7:30 p.m. The Princeton Singers in concert Steven Sametz, artistic director

Steven Sametz

Since 1983, the unique and brilliant sound of The Princeton Singers has delighted audiences at home and abroad. Their first-rate musicianship, clarity of tone, and innovative programming have earned them a reputation as one of the nation's preeminent choirs. Here are a few highlights of their past seasons: Under their founder, John Bertalot, the Singers developed a reputation for performing music of the English Cathedral tradition to the highest standard, focusing on works of the Renaissance and twentieth century. They have appeared on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and "With Heart And Voice" and have broadcast for the BBC. The Princeton Singers have completed three tours of England, in 1988, 1994 and 1996, singing in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Martin in the Fields, St. George's Windsor, Tewkesbury Abbey, St. Matthew's Northampton, and the cathedrals of Gloucester, Chichester, St. Alban's, Ely, and Blackburn. In 1994, the Princeton Singers drew an audience that filled the 1400 seats of Hereford Cathedral at the internationally renowned Three Choirs Festival, the oldest choral festival in Europe. The Hereford Times said of their performance, "The Princeton Singers are disciplined, without any loss of flexibility, the diction is immaculate, and the musical lines are never blurred. The performance was pure delight." A concert in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge was a treasured moment of the Singers' 1996 England tour. In a review of the concert, the international music magazine CHOIR & ORGAN called upon adjectives such as 'seamless', 'faultless' and 'sheen of perfection', saying "[The Princeton Singers] are undoubtedly a fine example of American choral singing at its strongest." On the home front, The Singers were featured as the guest celebrity choir at the annual conventions of the Association of Anglican Musicians in 1988 and 1993 and were featured performers at the centennial convention of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in July 1996 in New York City. In July 1997 they were the choir for the opening service of the national General Convention of the Episcopal Church, for a congregation of 10,000. In 2002 they were invited to sing at the Eastern Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Pittsburgh in February, and again at the national convention of the AGO in Philadelphia in July. They have also been the choir in residence for the Oxford Summer Institutes at Lehigh University in 2002 and 2003. Steven Sametz has earned increasing renown in recent years as both composer and conductor. He has served as artistic director of The Princeton Singers since 1998, and is also Director of Choral Activities at Lehigh University. Guest conducting appearances have included the Taipei Philharmonic Foundation, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the New York Chamber Symphony, and the Netherlands Radio Choir. Dr. Sametz's compositions have been heard throughout the world at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schleswig-Hostein, Santa Fe, and Salzburg music festivals. His "in time of" appears on Colors of Love, the Grammy Award-winning CD by Chanticleer, and has been recorded in two different versions by Chanticleer and by The Princeton Singers. His works may be heard on six other Chanticleer CDs, as well as on The Princeton Singers' Reincarnations, Christmas with The Princeton Singers, and Old New Borrowed Blues. The two facets of Sametz's professional identity - composer and conductor - find expression in his appointment as artistic director of The Princeton Singers, as the choir has arranged to commission one new work annually. His most recent is Amo!, written for The Princeton Singers' 20th Anniversary Season. Its world premiere was given in Princeton in June 2004. Sametz has received both the Composer Fellowship and Composer Consortium grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as grants from the Connecticut Council for the Arts. He has created new works for Chanticleer, the Dale Warland Singers, The Philadelphia Singers, Pro Arte Chamber Choir, Connecticut Choral Artists, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and the King of Thailand. His compositions are published by Oxford University Press, Hinshaw Publications, and Alliance Music. Dr. Sametz holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Hochschule für Musik and darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.

Douglas Keilitz

Sunday April 10, 2005 - 4:00 p.m. Evensong and Organ Recital Douglas Keilitz, organ recitalist Trinity Church Choir Lorenz Maycher, organist-choirmaster

Douglas Keilitz has been playing the organ since the age of 12, when he was inspired to take up the instrument after hearing the renown Virgil Fox perform near his hometown on Long Island. His earliest studies were with Robert Arnold and Robert K. Kennedy. Mr. Keilitz attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where he studied organ with William Whitehead. Currently, he is doing advanced study with concert organist Stephen Hamilton in New York. Throughout his career, Mr. Keilitz has held church positions in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and currently serves as Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of Saint Ignatius of Antioch in the City of New York, an Episcopal church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition located on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Mr. Keilitz has been active as a recitalist, performing concerts in many of New York's landmark churches, including St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and St. Paul's Chapel. He has performed in masterclasses with renown French organists Marie-Claire Alain (which was filmed by the American Guild of Organists) and Olivier Latry, organist of Notre Dame de Paris; most recently, he has performed in masterclasses with American organists James David Christie (sponsored by the New York City chapter of the AGO) and Charles Callahan. He has also performed as a choral director, having formed and/or directed several community choruses, including the re-organized Greater Trenton Choral Society, New Jersey. Mr. Keilitz currently serves as Registrar and a member of the Executive Board of the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. In addition to his musical career, Mr. Keilitz has also been active as a pipe organ builder, restorer, and curator.