Casavant installations

The Hollow Men, opus 25 (1948) by Vincent Persichetti (1915–1987), played by Dr. Matthew Vangjel, trumpet, and Dr. Richard Webb, organ.

Recorded live at the opening concert performance of the Louisiana State University Trumpet Festival, March 4, 2022, at First United Methodist Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; organ by Casavant Frères, Opus 3932, IV/57, 2020.

Dr. Matthew Vangjel is Associate Professor of Trumpet at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Currently, he is a member of the Mirari Brass Quintet (Ariel Artists), with whom he maintains an active touring schedule both in the United States and abroad. Recently, Mirari spent two weeks touring China and released its second album, “renewed, reused, recycled.”  He also is a member of the internationally acclaimed Fountain City Brass Band (FCBB), a British-style brass band based in Kansas City, KS.  He can be heard as solo flugelhorn on all the FCBB albums and as a featured soloist on Over the Rainbow and Celtic Impressions. Since the fall of 2019, Vangjel has served as the principal trumpet of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra. He also has performed with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony. He has been a featured soloist with the Fort Smith Symphony, Northland Symphony Orchestra and the Kansas City Civic Orchestra. His first solo album, Still and Quiet Places, was released by Summit Records in October of 2019.

Dr. Richard Webb, lauded by the Bristol Herald-Courier as “a musician foremost,” is highly regarded as a facile, sensitive and uniquely synchronous accompanist on all keyboard instruments and is in significant demand as both a solo artist and collaborative partner for singers and instrumentalists. Dr. Webb is Organ/Harpsichord Principal of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, a member of the Louisiana Touring Directory, is engaged as a collaborative artist and chamber musician by Bach's Five Productions and is represented as a concert organist by Concert Artist Cooperative. He is a featured artist on The Diapason's Artist Spotlights and was named a Louisiana Artist Fellow for Excellence in the Arts. 

https://www.thediapason.com/artists/richard-webb

Variations Pastorales by Marcel Samuel Rousseau (1882–1955) 
The St. Cecilia Duo - Rebecca Todaro, harp, and Richard Webb, organ

The Music Club of Baton Rouge, Louisiana was established in 1909 and in consecutive seasons has presented live concerts, study groups and scholarship award competitions to encourage and support the study and performance of music.  During the seasons of the Covid pandemic, all concerts and study groups, including this work from a concert by the St. Cecilia Duo, were presented virtually, through live streaming and/or recorded videos via brmusicclub.com, facebook.com/TheMusicClubBatonRouge and YouTube. MCBR has returned to in-person programing—along with continuing virtual events—and looks forward to its 114th year of fulfilling its mission.  The recordings were made at First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, utilizing its 2020 four-manual, 57-rank Casavant Frères organ. 

Rebecca Todaro began her harp studies at the age of nine with Elizabeth Roth in Charlotte, North Carolina. She studied harp at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Louisiana State University. She has taught on the music faculty at Louisiana State University, University of Western Florida, the Runnels School, after-school harp at St. Luke’s Episcopal School, and currently at Grace Notes School of Music. One of three competitors from the USA, she was a participant in the 1995 USA International Harp Competition and won third prize in the Young Professional division of the American Harp Society (AHS) Competition in 1996. She has served as president of the local AHS chapter, as well as on the executive committee as national treasurer and a director at large. In addition to performing with Dr. Richard Webb as the St. Cecilia Duo, Rebecca Todaro also concertizes with harpist Catherine Anderson as Quintessential Harp.

Richard Webb, keyboardist of the St. Cecilia Duo with harpist Rebecca Todaro, was lauded by the Bristol Herald-Courier as “a musician foremost.” Highly regarded as a facile, sensitive, and uniquely synchronous accompanist on all keyboard instruments, he is in significant demand as a collaborative partner for singers and instrumentalists, as well as a solo artist. Dr. Webb is Organist Emeritus of First United Methodist Church, Organ/Harpsichord Principal of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, a member of the Louisiana Touring Directory, is engaged as a collaborative artist and chamber musician by Bach's Five Productions and is represented as a concert organist by Concert Artist Cooperative. He is a featured artist on both Organiste.net and The Diapason Artist Spotlights and was named a Louisiana Artist Fellow for Excellence in the Arts.