Symphony Program Features Restored Skinner Organ
By Sally Vallongo, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
Apr. 15--To Cleveland organist Todd Wilson, next weekend's performances on the Skinner organ in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle will be very much a homecoming. Wilson, a Toledo native, goes way, way back with that reborn instrument.
"Growing up there, I had heard the organ and remembered it. When it fell into disrepair, my guess was that it wouldn't be restored," he said last week.
But in 2005, to the delight of organists and organ lovers throughout the region, the 1926 instrument indeed was returned to its original condition. Wilson was one of several luminary performers to explore the organ, Opus 603, in a recital not long after that.
"It was to me a great joy because it had been so beautifully restored," Wilson said. "They've done a first-class job on it."
He is to perform in two Toledo Symphony Classics Series concerts at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, performing Symphonie Concertante for organ and orchestra by 20th century Belgian composer Joseph Jongen. Later in the program, Wilson also will join the orchestra for a performance of Ottorino Respighi's Roman Festivals. Chelsea Tipton II will conduct.
Wilson is excited about introducing Toledo audiences to the Jongen work. It was written the same year the TMA Skinner was installed in the Hemicycle, the auditorium that predated the 1933 Peristyle.
"Jongen was a prolific composer, but is not as well known," Wilson said. "This piece is famous as arguably the most wonderful the showpiece for orchestra and organ of the early 20th century."
Written in four movements, it offers, according to Wilson, "Lots of exciting writing for both instruments, including substantial and challenging work for the orchestra."
Wilson has performed it on another Skinner instrument, the organ in Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. He's curator of the 1931 Norton Memorial Organ which, like the Toledo Skinner, has been moved and totally restored.
Although the Severance organ is larger, Wilson says of Toledo's instrument, "It's sort of a unique organ. The thing it has going for it is wonderful placement in the room. At Severance it's across the back of the stage and the sound is far away.
"In the Peristyle, the sound is very present, right there in the room and all around."
Wilson was inspired by the sound and capability of what is often called the King of Instruments as an elementary school student. Recruited for a boychoir at Trinity Episcopal Church downtown, he recalls, "I instantly fell in love with the organ. I thought it was so fabulous."
But first, said choirmaster and later, Wilson's teacher, the late Wesley Hartung, learn the piano. So he did. By the time he graduated from DeVilbiss High School in 1972, the eager keyboardist was deep into organ lessons with the late James Francis at Collingwood Presbyterian Church.
"I was so fortunate to have wonderful teachers in Toledo," Wilson said, from his car, driving from his Cleveland home to Cincinnati, where he earned bachelor and master's degrees in music at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Wilson returned to serve as organist and choirmaster at Collingwood Presbyterian in the late 1970s, leaving for positions in New York and Ohio, before landing in his current busy life as chair of the organ department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he teaches classes and private lessons for organ majors. Wilson also is director of music and organist at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, in the University Circle.
He maintains a busy concert and recording schedule as well and has produced an album of music for cello and organ featuring his daughter, Rachel.
The weekend concerts will open with Rossini's William Tell Overture. Following the Jongen performance, the symphony will premiere, Caldera, by Christopher Dietz. A PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, Dietz has been heard in another work commissioned in 2003 by the symphony: Prelude for Orchestra.
An introductory talk will be presented for ticket-holders at 7 p.m. in the Peristyle both nights. Tickets are $24-$51 at www.toledosymphony.com or 419-246-8000.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
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Source: The Blade http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/902645/symphony_program_features_restored_skinner_organ/index.html