Only A Few More Days

With the dedicatory concert drawing near, I thought I'd share a press release about Paul Jacobs, the organist who will be performing. Isn't it exciting to look back at where we started and see where God has brought us?

On September 12 Mr. Jacobs will perform in a free concert on Friday, September 12, at 7:30 p.m. at Tenth Presbyterian Church located at 17th and Spruce Streets. The church’s new instrument is a four-manual Walker digital organ, the gift from former U.S. Surgeon-General and former church elder, C. Everett Koop, donated in memory of his wife Betty and their son David. Tenth Church celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2004 with a grand concert free to the public at the Kimmel Center, and it is in the same spirit that the church invites Philadelphia to this event.

Jacobs will reintroduce the Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, an unpublished prelude and fugue for organ by Samuel Barber, which received its only performance in 1928 by organist Carl Weinrich at The Curtis Institute of Music. Music historian Barbara Heyman discovered the Barber work at the Library of Congress in 1984, as part of the research for her award-winning biography-Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music. Impressed by a recent performance by Mr. Jacobs, Dr. Heyman asked whether he would be interested in performing it. About the prelude and fugue, Mr. Jacobs comments, “Through this richly chromatic work, Barber seems to carry the listener beyond Brahms and Reger, into a new, personal realm of expression.” Both Heyman and Koop plan to be in attendance at the Philadelphia concert.

At 31, Paul Jacobs is widely acknowledged for reinvigorating today's organ scene with a fresh performance style and an "unbridled joy of music-making" in performances throughout America, as well as in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. In 2003 he became one of Juilliard's youngest faculty appointments and the following year was named chairman of the Juilliard organ department. Mr. Jacobs studied at The Curtis Institute of Music, where he doubled-majored in organ with John Weaver and harpsichord with Lionel Party, and subsequently at Yale University, where he studied with Thomas Murray.


Friday, September 12, at 7:30 p.m.

Tenth Presbyterian Church, 17th & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA

Paul Jacobs, organ

Prelude and Fugue in B Major, Op. 7 - Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

Trio Sonata in E Minor, BWV 528 - Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Prelude and Fugue in B Minor (1928) - Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Pageant - Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)

Fantasia and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam- Franz Liszt (1811-1886)


Admission is free. For more information, call 215.735.7688