Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, announces its summer organ academy for college students, July 20–25.
Faculty includes Peter Richard Conte, Alan Morrison, Ken Cowan, and Benjamin Sheen. The week’s activities afford students the opportunity to study organ transcriptions utilizing Longwood Gardens’ four-manual Aeolian organ of 146 ranks, 10,010 pipes.
Deadline for application is March 2.
For application and further information: longwoodgardens.org/organ-academy.
Bryan Anderson plays Live Wire by Iain Farrington.
Performed on the Aeolian organ at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania: four manuals, 146 ranks, and 10,010 pipes.
Bryan Anderson is the 2023 First Prize Winner of the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, where he also received the Philadelphia AGO Chapter Prize for the best performance of a prescribed work by the judges. He also took prizes at the 2021 Canadian International Organ Competition and the 2019 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, and is a past first-prize winner of the Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition.
Bryan serves as director of music at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church and School in Houston, Texas, where he trains all ages of choirs from elementary ages through adults, oversees eight sung services per week, and organizes a concert season of guest artists and in-house ensembles. He serves as co-manager of the RSCM Gulf Coast choral residency program and has also worked as the Preparatory Choir Director for the Houston Children’s’ Chorus.
Bryan Anderson, as part of Longwood prize, is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC. www.concertartists.com
He is a member of The Diapason’s “20 under 30” Class of 2017.
Bryan Anderson writes about Live Wire:
"My own introduction to Iain Farrington’s music was through his “Blues Service” Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; after performing that work I was pleased to discover that he had written a number of solo organ works in a similar style. This is manic jazz, dangerous and sparking, as the title suggests; the percussion of the Longwood organ is given many opportunities to shine! Iain Farrington is an in-demand arranger of orchestral music as well as a composer and pianist; while he is British, a sizable percentage of the rest of the world has seen him at least once, as he played piano opposite Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean in the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics!"
Live Wire is an upbeat work in which the various aspects of a jazz ensemble are evoked. The piece is based on the Baroque 'ritornello' form, where improvisatory solos in various keys are interspersed with a recurring theme. It is playable on any two manual organ, and registration can be as simple or varied as the performer wishes. https://www.iainfarrington.com/live-wire.html
