Members of the Greater Kansas City American Guild of Organists chapter will present a member’s recital on Monday, November 18, 2024.  Enjoy a night of beautiful music provided by members of our very own chapter.  The program will feature pieces from the church’s liturgical seasons and festivals.

This event is open to the public and has free admission.

A chapter dinner will precede this event for members and their guests. Reservations

The Greater Kansas City American Guild of Organists chapter is sponsoring a workshop: “Collaborative Colleagues: The Conductor/Organist Partnership” This workshop will be led by Ben Spalding and Jan Kraybill and will explore the crucial relationship between a conductor and organist to ensure musical collaborations and well-planned, efficient, and, above all, artistically satisfying for all parties involved.  All conductors and organists (plus choir members) are welcome to attend. 

A chapter dinner will precede this event for members and their guests.

The Greater Kansas City American Guild of Organists chapter is sponsoring a concert by Trevor Good. Trevor received first place in the 2023 AGO/Quimby North Central Regional Competition for Young Organists. This past July, he performed at the National AGO convention held in San Francisco, CA.   Trevor Good is an undergraduate organ student at the University of Kansas, where he studies with James Higdon. He is also the organist at Church of the Resurrection Brookside in Kansas City, Missouri.

For more information about Trevor, please visit his Facebook page.

Program

Symphony No. 1 - Rachel Laurin

i. Prelude

ii. Scherzo

iii. Aria

iv. Toccata

intermission

Symphony No. 6 - Charles-Marie Widor

i. Allegro

ii. Adagio

iii. Intermezzo

iv. Cantabile

v. Finale

The twelfth anniversary of the French Organ Music Festival will take place on Sunday, August 25, 2024, from 2 pm to 5 pm at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on 11th and Broadway in downtown Kansas City. The Greater Kansas City Chapter of the AGO and the Cathedral co-sponsor this annual event.

The Festival, started by AGO chapter member and Cathedral music director Dr. Mario Pearson, will present organists Trevor Good, Thomas Vozzella, Kurt Knecht, Fr. Brent Stull, Beth Elswick, and Andrew Morris.

The Festival features a live video feed from the organ console, including program notes about the performers and composers. It is an event for organists, music enthusiasts, and those curious about the pipe organ.

Limited parking is available at the Cathedral. Free parking is available on 12th and Broadway next to the Folly Theater. Click here for parking instructions and barcode.

For detailed program notes and the most current information click on the link below:

Food and fun exploring the 34 rank house organ at Burkfarm. Performance and organ crawl, social time, and time for people to try the instrument.

Christ on our lips - The Music of Corpus Christi

This one feast day has inspired an amazing collection of religious texts and a variety of musical settings.

Please join us for a concert featuring Antanina Kalechyts, organ, Matthew Christopher Shepard, conductor and The Te Deum Chamber Choir. A pre-concert lecture at 6:30 pm will be given by Fr. Paul Turner.

Please download this flyer for more information about the program.

This program is co-sponsored by Te Deum and the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

This program is open to public with free admission and no ticket required.

With our many thanks to Te Deum, Matthew Christopher Shepard, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Mario Pearson and all of our chapter members that have coordinated for this program. It promises to be outstanding.

Engage with us as our chapter presents Bachathon XLV. We will share some of the musical masteries of JS Bach for organ, choral ensemble and more during this beloved annual event sponsored by our chapter.

Click here to jump to this event page on our website for more information.

"The Kid" is a 1921 American silent comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by and starring Charlie Chaplin, and features Jackie Coogan as his foundling baby, adopted son and sidekick. This was Chaplin's first full-length film as a director. It was a huge success and was the second-highest-grossing film in 1921. Now considered one of the greatest films of the silent era, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2011.

Brett Valliant is an organist enjoying opportunities to play the music he loves on the instrument he loves. Whether at an organ in a concert hall, a majestic church organ, or a mighty Wurlitzer in a theatre, Brett is right at home.

This program is open to public with free admission and no ticket required.

Village Presbyterian Church - 75th Anniversary Celebration.

Make plans to join with us as Village Church celebrates this milestone anniversary. This concert will include pieces featured on organ recitals throughout Village Church’s history, as well as pieces written specifically to celebrate this current organ, and to honor the church’s 75th anniversary.

This recital will be performed by our amazing chapter member Dr. Elisa Williams Bickers, FAGO.. Elisa is the associate director of music and principal organist at Village Presbyterian Church. She directs the Alegría young adult choir and the Village Ringers handbell ensemble. Additionally, she is the keyboardist for the Bach Aria Soloists, a Kansas City chamber music ensemble devoted to performing the works of Bach and composers inspired by him. She has degrees in church music and organ performance from Texas Christian University and the University of Kansas. Read more about Elisa on the Village Church website.

Join with us for a recital performed by Dr. Katie (Katherine) Webb (nee Burk). A native of Lawrence, KS, she received a DMA in organ performance, with minor fields in choral conducting and music theory, at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she was a student of Christopher Young. She also was named to The Diapason’s “Twenty Under Thirty” Class of 2019 in recognition of outstanding achievement in the fields of church music and organ performance and currently serves as a board member of the Royal School of Church Music in America. She now serves as Canon for Cathedral Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, OR, successor there to Bruce Neswick.

Find more information about Katie on the Trinity and Diapason websites.

There will be a chapter dinner prior to this event starting at 6:15 pm.

Explore with us as we introduce area piano students to the ‘King of Instruments’. We will share the unique capabilities of the pipe organ, compare that to the piano and let the piano students perform a prepared piano piece on the pipe organ.

For this event we will start at Southminster Presbyterian Church and later arrive at Trinity Lutheran Church. The students will get to explore both instruments, learn more about the pipe organ and enjoy some pizza.

Check out the PPP page on this website for more information and to register for this event.

Practical improvising skills with Robert Nicholls, presenter.

Robert Nicholls is the 2012 winner of the AGO Improvisation Competition.  He is a former adjunct professor teaching improvisation for Indiana University and is the Music Director/Organist at First Presbyterian Church, Evansville, IN.

Find more information about Robert on Vox Humana, Facebook or First Presbyterian Church websites.

There will be a chapter dinner prior to this event starting at 6:15 pm.

Make plans to join us for a recital by James Kealey, First Prize and Audience Prize winner of the 2022 American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP).

Our multi-talented chapter member, Dr. Jan Kraybill, FAGO, will share with us practical keyboard practice skills. Make plans to join with us for tips to improve your practice methods.

Tips for "E-E-E" Practice: All of us have lots of practicing to do and never enough time in which to do it. Jan will offer strategies to make your practice sessions more Effective and Efficient, so that you will more quickly achieve Excellence. This is a chance to renew or kickstart your best practice habits!

Learn more about Jan on her website.

There will be a chapter dinner prior to this event starting at 6:15 pm.

Plan to join us for the 11th annual French Festival. This has become a beloved standard for the GKCAGO chapter to present to the community. And be sure to check out our French Festival page on this website.

We will meet on May 22, at 6 pm at St. Luke's Episcopal Church at 5325 Nieman Rd. in Shawnee, KS.  It is just north of West Flanders park in Shawnee.  Our current Registrar is their organist and our Secretary was their previous organist. 

The meeting on May 22 will include a delicious dinner at 6, and we will then have the installation of our new board officers.  Afterward we will have a demonstration of the materials given to our chapter by the Reuter Organ Company.  Then we will proceed to the sanctuary for a demonstration of the organ, and some hymn singing!  This should be a very good chance to greet our chapter officers, meet our friends, and hopefully make some new ones!

Engage with us as our chapter presents Bachathon XLIV. We will share some of the musical masteries of JS Bach for organ, choral ensemble and more.

Click here to jump to this event page on our website for more information.

We will gather to celebrate the 105 year heritage of the Reuter Organ Co. Reuter produced more than 2200 new organs and countless rebuilds and additions projects over their long heritage as an organ builder in Lawrence, KS. Historian and organist Max Mayse will present a brief history about the company's earlier years to include many photos plus a video presentation. JR Neutel, the president of the company (now downsized and not producing new instruments) will offer brief remarks and past employees in attendance will be recognized. There will also be a mini concert performed by prize-winning young artist, Dr. Peiyao Yu, on Trinity's 33-rank Reuter Organ after which there will be cake and drinks along with CD give-a-ways.

Peiyao Yu will perform a demonstration-style concert on the 2015 Reuter Organ at Trinity Episcopal Church. She will play excerpts from:

Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig, BWV 768 by J.S.Bach
Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité No.2 by Olivier Messiaen
Variations sur un Noël, Op.20 by Marcel Dupré

Alleluia! Song of Gladness

Rescued, Restored, and Redeemed

A pre-Lenten lecture-recital by Dr. Kevin Vogt presenting the newly installed Hal Gober pipe organ, Opus 5 (relocated from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, OH) at Holy Angels Catholic Church in Basehor, Kansas.

Sacred Mardi Gras Reception to follow.

Hosted by Holy Angels Catholic Church and the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Open to the public, free admission.

Read more about the organ here.

Listen to a recording of this instrument from its original location.

Please join us for a performance by Duo Organists Ann Marie Rigler & Melody Steed.

Open to the public, free admission.

Dr. Rigler and Dr. Steed formed their organ duo in 2017, following years of collaboration and friendship as fellow faculty members for several AGO Pipe Organ Encounters. Their program will feature works by David Briggs, Charles Callahan, Gustav Merkel, C.H.V. Alkan, Robin Dinda, and Naji Hakim.

PROGRAM

Variations on VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS
David Briggs (b. 1962)

The Emerald Isle
Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

Sonate #1 D-Moll, Op. 30
I.Allegro moderato
II.Adagio
III.Allegro con fuoco
Gustav Merkel (1827-1885)

Rhapsody on English Hymn Tunes
Charles Callahan

Bombardo-Carillon
Charles Henri Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)

Max Cat Rag
Robin Dinda (b. 1959)

Rhapsody
Naji Hakim (b. 1955)

30th Anniversary of the Casavant Organ Opus 3713 at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas.

Please join with us for an afternoon of a concert of organ and organ-plus works.

Hosted by our own chapter dean Joshua Hearn.

Celebrating César Franck: Instrumental & Choral Works

This year we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of César Franck. Living a fundamentally unassuming life as an organist and professor at the Paris Conservatory, in his later years Franck produced a string of profound works ripe with inspiration, passion, intellectual rigor, and lyricism. Please join us for this program of his instrumental and choral works.

This concert is free and open to the public.

César Franck
The Complete Organ Works

In two programs by world renowned organist Scott Dettra. Click here for more information available on Scott’s website about this program.

PROGRAM

Choral 3
Fantaisie in C
Choral 2
Fantaisie in A
Prélude, fugue et variation
Final

We hope you can join us for what promises to be wonderful programs!

César Franck
The Complete Organ Works

In two programs by world renowned organist Scott Dettra. Click here for more information available on Scott’s website about this program.

PROGRAM

Pièce héroïque
Pastorale
Prière
Choral 1
Cantabile
Grande pièce symphonique

We hope you can join us for what promises to be wonderful programs!

Plan to join us for the 10th annual French Festival. This has become a beloved standard for the GKCAGO chapter to present to the community. And be sure to check out our French Festival page on this website.

Hybrid organ demonstration featuring Beth Elswick and Gerry Oehring

Engage with us as our chapter presents Bachathon XLIII. We will share some of the musical masteries of JS Bach for organ, choral ensemble and more.

Click here to jump to this event page on our website for more information.

Celebrating Louis Vierne

Join us as Eric Plutz, Princeton University organist and Louis Vierne admirer, will perform Symphonies Nos. 1 and 6 of Louis Vierne (1870–1937). He is presenting these programs as a tribute after the 150th anniversary of Vierne’s birth, a bit after the fact due to the pandemic. Open to the public. Free admission.

Explore with us as we introduce area piano students to the ‘King of Instruments’. We will share the unique capabilities of the pipe organ, compare that to the piano and let the piano students perform a prepared piano piece on the pipe organ.

For this event we will start at Southminster Presbyterian Church and later arrive at Village Presbyterian Church. The students will get to explore both instruments and learn more about the pipe organ. We hope to be able to include pizza with this year’s event.

Check out the PPP page on this website for more information and to register for this event.

Great Spaces and The Greater Kansas City Chapter of The American Guild of Organists are pleased to present organist David Briggs in concert at Grace Cathedral in Topeka. David's program will include music by Franz Schmidt, J S Bach, César Franck, Gustav Mahler, Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakoff, Alexandre Guilmant and an improvisation on a submitted theme. David has held numerous positions in North America and the U.K. He is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. Admission is free, both in person and through livestream. Use bpt.me/5352479 to register for the livestream option.