Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Organ in Salt Lake City, Utah

It’s a feast for the ears on this week’s broadcast. We’ll have choice and charming confections from home and abroad, including Dale Wood’s evocation of a Cold December, a Richard Purvis song about wee lambs, and a mechanical music-box version of White Christmas. We’ll also visit Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Minneapolis, the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, England, and Brangwyn Hall in Wales in search of the proper ingredients for our holiday party.

Whether searching for your lover Shenandoah across the wide Missouri, or settling into a fountain reverie, showering in the South Pacific or praying by the River Jordan, this week’s Pipedreams focus is “liquid lyricism.” You’ll hear about splashing water nymphs, a bathtub songfest, elusive rainbows, and challenges to seafaring men. The music of Handel, Bach, Richard Rodgers, Louis Vierne, and even Chopin will provide a cooling array of aural aquatic images. From the banks of the Jordan to the mighty Rhine, whether in sunshine or moonlight, on Babylon’s shores or in the lively South Pacific, it’s not your normal organ program. From folk traditions to timeless classics, it’s all about Water Music, this week on Pipedreams.

We’ve everything from a 16th century Italian dance to a grand orchestral march, featuring instruments of only a dozen stops to several hundred. On our next Pipedreams program, we sample some recent recordings from Saint Christopher’s-by-the-River in Ohio, and the Riverside Church in New York City, the first CD release from Ocean Grove Auditorium, the latest from the Mormon Tabernacle, plus a tribute to Dame Gillian Weir, the last album from George Wright, and a pair of critically acclaimed surveys of the complete organ works of Marcel Dupré. Sounds good? You bet! We’re Going On Record with a review of recent recordings this week on Pipedreams.

We’ve a sampler of somewhat unusual and extraordinarly characterful music on our next Pipedreams program, compositions AND instruments by Americans, including James Woodman’s Lydian Versets, played on the John Nordlie organ at the Lutheran Church in Brandon, South Dakota. We’ll hear other pieces by Dan Locklair, Robert Elmore, Richard Purvis, and Philip Glass, played in Stamford, Connecticut, Collegedale, Tennessee, Portland, Oregon, and San Diego, plus we’ll visit the grand old Granad Theatre in Kansas City for some snappy show tunes from yesterday and the day before. Something’s got to give, when we break through maddining misperceptions and expose the pipe organ for what it really always is a marvelously magical music-making machine, playing everything from prayers to pops. We honor a nation of organbuilders and composers and celebrate The American Muse this week on Pipedreams.

It’s time to take the organ out of its religious context, and enjoy it out of doors at Balboa Park in San Diego. We’ll also visit other venues where summer concerts win new friends for the King of Instruments. From the Methuen Music Hall in Massachusetts to the Mormon Tabernacle, from Balboa Park in San Diego to the Berks County Museum in Pennsylvania, we celebrate a season of adventure and discovery, a sampler of seasonal recital venues coast to coast. It’s all about having some Summer Fun.

The Christmas image of a newborn babe brought into a cold world conjures sentiments of joy and astonishment. So it’s not entirely surprising that the music on this week’s program does the same. We celebrate the season with trumpets and choirs, as well as organs both in solo and duet performances. Join in and sing along with familiar old tunes and embrace some new music, too, heralding the good news of the Nativity. For Unto Us: a holiday for heart and ears.

John Longhurst, Clay Christiansen and Richard Elliott demonstrate the famous Mormon Tabernacle organ, plus new instruments at the LDS Conference Center and at Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Our own composers and performers know how to bring a unique and special flavor to the holiday season.

…If you’re out and about across the country, some summer organ concerts could be part of your travel plans.

…home-grown performers, composers, and instruments celebrate the Festival of the Nativity.

…performances on the notable instruments of Temple Square, including the Mormon Tabernacle, Assembly Hall and Conference Center, plus Salt Lake City’s Cathedral of the Madeleine.

…one of the world's most exciting virtuosos plays a mostly-Bach program (with a twist) on the great organ at Royal Albert Hall.

…to celebrate his sesquicentennial, we go beyond the famous Gothic Suite to reveal other facets of this intriguing French composer, Leon Boëllmann (1862-1897).

…performers, composers, arrangers, and instrument builders join in providing music for the holiday celebration.

…a centenary tribute to imaginative and virtuosic American composer-organist Robert Elmore (1913-1985).

…our traditional summing-up of some of the year’s happenings in the world of the King of Instruments.

A potpourri of popular selections presented by the organists and choir of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Think of them as sweets for the ears. We unwrap a bundle of seasonal cheer and a coast-to-coast collection of talent on the next Pipedreams broadcast. Organists play in solo and duo at Saint John’s Cathedral, Milwaukee, Spivey Hall in Morrow, Georgia, and the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, while choirs sing at Riverside Church, New York, Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, and All Saints Lutheran in Kansas City. In 13 different venues, our carols and fantasies all feature artists and instruments from around the United States. Wherever you are, we’ll all be right at home this week with An American Organist’s Christmas, hosted by Michael Barone.