1994 Lively-Fulcher organ at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Washington DC

The work of African-American organ composers is a powerfully compelling story in music and on our next Pipedreams broadcast we’ll explore its diverse nature. With performer and commentator Mickey Thomas Terry, we’ll visit the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Patrick’s Church, and the National Presbyterian Church, all located in Washington, DC. Here we’ll listen to largely unknown creations by Thomas Kerr, William Cooper, Noel DaCosta, George Walker and Eugene Hancock. We’re highlighting music for organ with African percussion, and organ solo settings of African-American spirituals, music for church services, and pieces for the concert hall. It’s a multi-faceted discovery, spelled out In Black and White the African-American organ art, this week on Pipedreams.

Tune in and celebrate contributions made to the art of the organ by African-American composers and performers.

American composers Frank Ferko and Stephen Paulus confirm the influence of a medieval mystic, Hildegard of Bingen, upon their contemporary art. Hildegard believed music to be the highest form of human activity, a mirror of the celestial resonance of angel choirs and the harmony of the heavenly spheres. Why shouldn’t composers today be inspired by her example?

A spicy collection of holiday music from chapels, cathedrals and a theatre.

Whether bullish or bearish, the musical environment in Washington, DC is enlivened by the sounds of instruments such as these.