Haunting Halloween organ concert Oct. 31
Haunting organ music will emanate from Harkness Chapel on Saturday, Oct. 31, when Connecticut College Organist and Professor of Music John Anthony is joined by fellow musicians and a dancer for the “John Anthony and Friends” concert from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public.
A Halloween evening tradition for many years, this year’s concert will feature Anthony playing the famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by J. S. Bach, a sonata by Mendelssohn, and what Anthony describes as “a somewhat scary French toccata,” the late 19th-century Henri Mulet work "Thou Art the Rock and the Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against You." Anthony’s brother, James Anthony, a retired professor of music history at Towson University, will play a “lesser known, but stellar ‘other’ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (the Dorian).”
The program also includes Connecticut College students. Elias Aquino ’16, a music and botany major who has studied organ throughout his career, and dancer Lili Lan Visgilio ’18 will both perform.
The Harkness Chapel organ has three keyboards, a pedal board and 47 speaking stops controlling 3,000 pipes. Since its installation in 1939, the organ has only been repaired “from time to time,” according to Anthony. Austin Organs, founded in 1893 and still in operation in Hartford, designed the organ in consultation with J. Lawrence Erb, Connecticut College organist and professor of music from 1923 to 1942. It was one of two instruments that were intended to showcase Austin's new, more refined tonal style.
For more information, contact the Department of Music, 860-439-2720.
October 22, 2015
