2018-2019 Program Year

Annual Labor Day Weekend Barbecue

Sunday 02 September, 1pm

The Annual Chapter Labor Day Weekend Barbecue will be
Sunday 02 September, 1pm, at St. Bede's Episcopal Church, Menlo Park. The barbecue starts at 1pm, but late arrivals are welcome. All food and drink will be provided at no cost, and the von Beckarath organ will be open to play. Bring a friend!

New Salon Series: Low Pressure Public Performance Practice

Back in the time of Mendelssohn, friends would often gather for "salons" to play music in a casual setting and enjoy each other's company. This year, we're bringing that tradition back with a new series of salons for beginner to intermediate level organists. If you've got some pieces you would like practice performing in front of a friendly audience and you're interested in trying out different organs, but you aren't yet comfortable performing in a recital setting, then this series is for you.

Each salon will be at a different venue with an organ that's easy to get familiar with (likely 2 manuals, pipe or electronic). We'll each get to spend some time at the organ setting up registrations and playing our pieces for each other and then meet up at a nearby coffee shop for socializing. Pieces could range from a postlude you're working on to just playing through a hymn or two.

The first salon will be:
Saturday afternoon 06 October at 2:00
Grace Lutheran Church
3149 Waverley Street
Palo Alto
2-manual Casavant

If you're interested, please RSVP to Fjord Hawthorne, but please feel free to come even if you don't RSVP. Hope to see you there!

Masterclass with Catherine Rodland (St. Olaf’s)

Saturday morning 13 October, 10:00
Catherine Rodland from St. Olaf's at First Congregational Palo Alto

Workshop: Wellness at the Console

Saturday morning 03 November, 10:00
Congregation Church of San Mateo

The "whole-body" approach to playing: A workshop with [pianist] Donna Stoering.

Donna Stoering is an award-winning, internationally-renowned recording artist, concert pianist, and artist-teacher who has been performing in public since age 5 and coaching musicians professionally since age 10. At 17 she was appointed Head of a (7-member) Piano Department at a community music school, and at 20 she became Principal Piano faculty and Performance coach at University of York (UK). A protege of the late Sir Georg Solti, Donna subsequently served for several years as Artist in Residence to Oxford University, and she has also traveled the globe, speaking, teaching and performing as an Artistic Ambassador for both the UK and the USA. Donna has been the youngest- ever judge of international piano competitions in Russia, Italy, UK, Canada, and USA, and has served as adjudicator/evaluator for several different certification programs, piano-level exams, and piano teachers' associations, both throughout America and abroad.

Donna has performed piano concerti with major conductors/orchestras worldwide, and solo recitals on the guest artist series of most major venues worldwide as well. Her teachers included Joyce Grantham, John Delevoryas, Fernando Valenti, Lili Kraus, James Dick, Sulamita Aronovsky, and Mary Sauer, who just recently retired after an astounding 57 years as principal keyboard of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Donna first met (and studied with) Mary Sauer at the age of 19, after she (Donna) had completed her B.A. and M.A. degrees in music and was touring the country under artist management. At that time, Mary Sauer was developing a completely new approach for both piano performance and pedagogy, based on the anatomy of the human body. Medical doctors and anatomy specialists were consulted in the development of this unique approach, as well, and over the next several years Donna coached intensively with Mary Sauer and became the primary proponent of this new method in her concert performances, and further developed it through her own extensive teaching. Donna's own students have gone on to win major competitions and teach this approach in private studios, music schools, and international universities, and Donna has been asked to give workshops on this performance and pedagogy technique to the piano teachers of the major music conservatories in Russia, Hong Kong, U.K. Italy, India, Republic of Georgia, Latvia, Philippines, Norway, and many more countries, as well as on both coasts of the USA.

Her presentation on Saturday 03 November 2018 will share an overview of the "whole-body" approach and pedagogy technique that she and Mary Sauer have developed, which enables pianists of all ability levels to play with more speed, physical ease, phrase continuity, and muscular freedom; and how we might apply these ideas in our own approaches to organ playing.

Second Salon Event: Low-Pressure Public Performance Practice

Saturday afternoon 12 January, 2:00
First Church of Christ, Scientist (150 N El Camino Real, San Mateo, cschurchsanmateo.org)
Modified Estey, 2 manuals, ~15 ranks

Kevin Fryer Harpsichord Studio tour

Saturday 26 January
Tour Kevin Fryer Harpsichord Studio in San Francisco
joint event with Western Early Keyboard Association

Members’ Recital

Saturday afternoon 23 February, 3:00
Christ Church, Portola Valley

Trip to Five Wounds Portuguese National Parish

Saturday afternoon 02 March, 3:00-5:00
1375 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose.
Led by Roger Inkpen who renovated this very unique pipe organ built by Kimball.
This is a joint event with the San Jose Chapter.

Quimby Competition

Saturday 16 March, 10:00am at First Congregational Palo Alto

Masterclass with Gail Archer

Saturday morning 18 May, 10:00 at St. Bede's Episcopal Church, Menlo Park.

She will preform a concert at St. Bede's Menlo Park the following day, Sunday afternoon at 4:00, to celebrate the Beckerath organ's 50th anniversary.
Read about it at Arts Brochure 2108-2019.

Third Salon Event: Low Pressure Performance Practice

Saturday afternoon 01 June 2019 at 1:00
St Andrew's Episcopal Church, San Bruno