At Saint Olaf, we are blessed to have a magnificent 67-rank pipe organ. This year, it will be showcased in a series of recitals on Wednesday afternoons, immediately following the noon Mass. Come hear the organ thunder with might and whisper gently as talented organists showcase a variety of repertoire.
Wednesday Organ Recitals run monthly from October 21 through May 19, 2021 (no recital in January), and will be approx. 30-40 minutes long. Freewill donation.
Dean
Billmeyer, organist
21 April 2021 St. Olaf Catholic Church, Minneapolis
Georg Muffat
Toccata Prima from Apparatus
Musico-Organisticus (1690)
Georg Böhm (1661-1733)
Chorale Partita, Auf meinen lieben Gott
J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, BWV 544
Award-winning organist Dean Billmeyer is in his
thirty-ninth year as University Organist and Professor of Music at the
University of Minnesota. In this capacity, he teaches classes in Counterpoint,
Thoroughbass, and Keyboard Skills, as well as Organ and Harpsichord. Billmeyer has
appeared as a recitalist and clinician throughout the United States and Western
Europe – his performances have consistently been acclaimed by juries and
critics in the U.S. and abroad for their technical prowess and interpretive
insight. His numerous awards include prizes in the Dublin International Organ
Festival Competitions in 1980 and 1988, and the American Guild of Organists has
twice awarded him for the highest scores nationally on the Guild Certification
Examinations.
Billmeyer’s Double CD recording entitled “Straube
Plays Bach” is the only commercially available recording of the nine major
Preludes and Fugues and G Minor Fantasia and Fugue on early 20th century tubular-pneumatic action organs using the idiosyncratic, hyper-Romantic
1913 edition of Karl Straube, the famous organist and cantor of the Leipzig St.
Thomas Church. The recording, released by Rondeau Production of Leipzig in
2018, was nominated for the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” as one of
the best classical recordings in Germany in that year. The CDs also received a
positive review in the Munich “Abendzeitung” in February 2019.
Dean Billmeyer’s teachers include the late David
Craighead (Eastman School of Music), the late Robert Anderson (Southern
Methodist University), and Michael Radulescu (Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende
Kunst, Vienna). He has appeared regularly as organist, harpsichordist, and
pianist over the last twenty-one seasons with both the Minnesota Orchestra and
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Upcoming performances include Bach’s Brandenburg
Concerto No. 3 with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (streaming May 7 and 8),
and works by Bach, Reger, Vierne and others at Northrop at the University of
Minnesota (May 25 – tickets and streaming information at northrop.umn.edu).
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