1990 Nordlie organ at First United Methodist Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Awaken to the coming of spring and simultaneously celebrate a most important anniversary this week on Pipedreams. We honor Johann Sebastian Bach while enjoying his music - both youthful escapades and mature profundities - as played by Simon Preston, E. Power Biggs, Jonathan Dimmock and Kate von Tricht. Other composers offer unusual homage, too, and Håkan Hagegård, Rupert Gough, and Stewart Foster provide a few unexpected surprises. Dress casually, come with a friend, but bring no gifts; the best ones are already on the table.

To know this instrument is to celebrate the totality of its wide-ranging repertoire, and one of today’s most broad-minded organists is Professor Craig Cramer from Notre Dame University in Indiana. He takes equal pleasure in contemporary compositions and historic music played on period instruments. We’ll hear him perform Bach in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Steinfeld, Germany. We also hear him in recital on the 19th-century Johnson organ at a convent in Mankato, Minnesota and on the new installation at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma. Craig shares his insights and experiences gained during his international recital tours.

It is as simple as Bach’s instructions, “Push the right key and the right time and the organ plays itself.” With that in mind, we’ll discover just how much diversity there is behind that seemingly obvious instruction. Listen to six American soloists on as many American instruments will treat us to Preludes and Fantasies, melodious chorale-settings and vibrant fugues. In a cross-country survey, from churches in South Dakota, Georgia, Michigan and Utah and university halls in Arizona and Texas, we celebrate Baroque organ music at its best and show Johann Sebastian the American way. It’s the United States of Bach.

The optimistic and engaging music of American composer and performer Emma Lou Diemer, whose original works and hymn-tune arrangements never fail to uplift the spirit.

…youthful masterpieces inspired by Bach, his last compositions, and other surprises.

…a summer quarter sampler of recent releases of organ music, with emphasis on the unusual and the unusually attractive.

Both early and late in life, the special power of organ music spoke profoundly through the art of Johannes Brahms [1833-1897]. This centenary tribute includes it all. In his teens, while studying with Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms thought of becoming a professional organist, but gave up the notion as being fiscally impractical. His four early works show that he well understood the instrument’s potential. His very last compositions, the Chorale-preludes, were dedicated to the memory of his lifelong friend, Clara Schumann. This program provides a sampler overview of available Brahms recordings, many of which individually emcompass Brahms’ complete works.

Concerts from American Guild of Organists gatherings in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Sioux Center Iowa.

instruments built by John F. Nordlie and Charles Hendrickson envigorate the organ scene in and around Sioux Falls, South Dakota.