​Daryl Robinson Organ Recital

Friday, April 16, 2021, 7:30 PM

Daryl Robinson performs a faculty recital featuring the music of Jeanne Demessieux, Florence Beatrice Price, Healey Willan, and two composers from the University of Houston: David Ashley White and Marcus Karl Maroney.

The program includes the Texas premiere of Maroney's "Trio Sonata for Organ" and White's "Come, Pure Hearts: Introduction, Theme, and Variations" which was composed for Robinson in 2012. Thanks to recent efforts in the classical music world and beyond, the music of Florence Beatrice Price has taken center stage and her complete "Suite No. 1 for Organ" will be offered. A native of Little Rock, AR, Price attended the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA, where she studied organ with Henry M. Dunham and where she had the opportunity to meet the French organist Félix-Alexandre Guilmant on one of his American tours. Guilmant attended Price's performance of his "Sonata No. 1 in D Minor" on a student recital in Jordan Hall and publicly congratulated her for her technical and artistic mastery of the work.

The recital will open with Jeanne Demessieux's "Te Deum," based upon the initial notes of the Gregorian chant "Te Deum laudamus" for the opening section followed by two contrasting sections, inspired by the text "Tibi Omnes Angeli" and "Pleni Sunt Caeli." To close the recital, Healey Willan's "Introduction, Passacaglia, and Fugue," will make use of nearly all 5,045 pipes of the Cathedral's Aeolian-Skinner organ. Born in England, Willan moved to Canada in 1913 and would spend his career working in Toronto, holding both academic and church positions.

The epitome of "a gentleman and a scholar," Willan was fascinated by exploring complex musical forms, writing, "I was always especially interested in counterpoint...the way the parts were interwoven. I got rather bored with the one-dimensional hymn tune stuff. Rather ordinary. But as soon as it became complicated, contrapuntal, then I was having a good time."

The recital will be offered in-person and available via live stream on the Cathedral's media platforms.

Register in advance to attend.

Visit christchurchcathedral.org/organrecital to watch livestream.