Part of our SFA Feast Day festivities!
Featuring Dr. Joel Bacon, organ chair at CSU!
In the first 30 minutes, Dr. Bacon will do a child-friendly didactic demonstration of our brand new organ. He will then perform a dynamic program, showcasing the full range of expression of our organ, with repertoire ranging from french romantic to contemporary. You can’t miss it!
FREE!
About the Organist
Joel Bacon is the Stewart and Sheron Golden Chair of Organ and Liturgical Studies at Colorado State University.
His organ recitals have been heard throughout Europe and North America, and in broadcasts on Austrian Radio and Public Radio International. He has performed with numerous orchestras and chamber groups, including the Borromeo String Quartet and the Canadian Brass. Locally, he has been a featured soloist with the Fort Collins Symphony, Larimer Chorale, Greeley Philharmonic, Greeley Chorale, Centennial Children’s Chorus, and many other ensembles.
Before his appointment to CSU in 2005, he earned degrees in mathematics and organ performance from Baylor University, and an artist diploma in organ from the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. With a dissertation on the use of organ in orchestral works, he earned his Ph.D. in historical musicology from Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts. His teachers included Joyce Jones and Michael Gailit.
He directs and teaches an annual summer course for young organists (CSU Organ Week) and has directed several national Pipe Organ Encounters of the American Guild of Organists. He has taught at the Oundle International Festival (Cambridge, UK), at organ courses of the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, and at numerous other courses in the US and Canada. He has been a juror for regional and national competitions of the American Guild of Organists.
As a musicologist, he has lectured widely on topics related to the organ and liturgical music. His most current research focuses on the American composer Herman Berlinski (1910–2001), whose organ concerto he performed in a world premiere in Munich in 2019. In addition to playing the organ, harpsichord, and piano, he enjoys singing and directing Gregorian chant. He has conducted chant choirs for Mass at Catholic churches in the Fort Collins area, and in concert performances at CSU.
About the Organ
The new St. Francis of Assisi organ was installed in June 2021 by Spunky Brunone of AudioDAWg from Farmers Branch, Texas. Members of the St. Francis parish contributed time and talents in woodworking, high-end audio technology, construction, electrical work and speaker cover fabrication, as well as project management, organ design and console layout.
The new organ combines meticulously recorded pipe organ samples and organ modeling software (Hauptwerk) with advanced network and audio technology to create an instrument of remarkable musical flexibility. It is currently configured to emulate four historical pipe organs: Salisbury Cathedral, UK (Henry Willis, 1877), the Saint-Étienne Abbey in Caen, France (Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, 1885), St. Anne’s Church, Moseley, UK (Brindley & Foster, 1907) and Pasadena Presbyterian Church, USA (Aeolian-Skinner, 1961). This combination of sample sets provides authenticity for a wide variety of organ and liturgical music.