Christopher Marks, associate professor of organ, will lead a faculty recital at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in the Kimball Hall. The program will feature music from French and American composers.
The concert is free and open to the public. It will also be webcast via link available on the Glenn Korff School of music website.
The recital will include Gabriel Pierné’s, “Entrée dans le style classique;” Guy Ropartz’s, “Prélude funèbre;” Charles Marie Widor’s, “Scherzo” from Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 13, No. 4; Joseph Jongen’s, “Two Pieces, Op. 53;” and Pierné’s, “Trois Pièces, Op. 29.”
“I was looking for French music that was a little bit off the beaten path to play,” Marks said.
Marks will conclude with Kurt Knecht’s, “Romance and Tarantella;” Seth Bingham’s, “Passacaglia in E Minor, Op. 40;” and Leo Sowerby’s, “Fast and Sinister from Symphony for Organ.”
Marks commissioned Knecht to write “Romance and Tarantella” for him.
“I commissioned him to write a piece for me last summer for the Convention of the Organ Historical Society in Syracuse, New York, where I premiered it,” Marks said. “Everywhere I’ve played it since then, people have responded very well to it. It’s a fun piece.”
A lot of the American music was very heavily influenced by French organ music, so it’s fun to see the influence from France to America in the early part of the 20th century, he said.
Marks will also be performing at Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, at 3 p.m. Feb. 22. His concert there will kick off a year-long organ concert series celebrating the church’s $1.1 million renovation of their 1950 Aeolian-Skinner organ, which was completely refurbished last year by Schoenstein and Co. Pipe Organs.
The Kountze concert will be one of two Aeolian-Skinner organs he is playing on this year.
The Feb. 22 concert is free and open to the public. The historic church is located at 2650 Farnam St. in Omaha.
Marks has been hailed for his “style and assurance” in performance and is quickly gaining a reputation for creative and friendly programming. His interest and skill with historic American instruments has led to four appearances at conventions of the Organ Historical Society.
An active proponent of new music, Marks has also premiered a number of commissioned organ works. His diverse stylistic interests also steer him toward a variety of other repertoire, with a recent interest in American organ music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He holds degrees from the University of Richmond, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Michael Farris. His performances have garnered him top prizes in competitions, including the Arthur Poister Competition, the San Marino Competition, the Fort Wayne Competition and the Mader Competition.
He is looking forward to audiences enjoying his performances.
“The audience should expect a nice balance between lyricism, which the French composers were very good at, and virtuosic writing, as well as lots of variety of color and sound from the instrument,” Marks said.
