On June 8, 2016

Maurice Steger

gave a recital with Joel Bacon and James David Christie

at the

Organ Recital Hall on the campus of

Colorado State University

playing works by

Teleman, Fontana, Uccellini, Falconiero, Scarlatti, Rameau and Corelli

A most appreciative audience convinced Maurice Steger to play a rare encore!  In the sold out house most of the members of the local ARS chapter were present.  The recital was followed by a reception honoring the artists.

visit Maurice Steger’s webpage at  http://mauricesteger.com/

 

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On September 19, 2015

Glen Shannon

Workshop in Fort Collins

Review by Rosemary Whitaker

Twenty members from ARS chapters in Fort Collins, Boulder, and Denver, Colorado, came together for a workshop with conductor/teacher/composer Glen Shannon. Held at the lakeshore home of Seraina and Johannes Gessler in Fort Collins, the setting was conducive to achieving music as beautiful as the landscape.

Glen warmed everyone up with tuning and fingering exercises – intermixed with good-humored suggestions about how to arrive at that golden moment – and then moved to Jay Kreuzer’s “Jay’s Pyramid Scheme” to see how close we could come to it. Inspired by our imperfect but promising achievement, we joined our voices in the lovely “Amour et la Beauté” by Philippe Rogier.

Glen then tested our sight-reading ability with three of his challenging compositions. He introduced us to one of his recent quartet compositions, the “Federal Fantasia & Fugue.” Glen explained that he followed the William Byrd model for the fantasia, pairing it with a Bach-style fugue. We were inspired to achieve a level of performance that had us at the end applauding not only the composer/conductor but ourselves as well. Then, in a state of giddiness, we swung into the alto duo, “Gin Rickey,” with some suggestion that swing music was a part of our collective memory.

The last of Glen’s compositions, “The Green Room Dance,” called for all the energy we could muster to cope with its rhythmic and technical complexity. And then, as we reluctantly had to admit that both brains and fingers were approaching the end of their usefulness, Glen led us through the beautiful “Weep, Oh My Eyes” by John Bennet, newly typeset and arranged by Glen specifically for the occasion of this workshop. We all knew why, on a lovely September day, we had chosen to make music together.