JUNE 17 · 7:30pm
Jeff Thayer & Raul Prieto Ramirez
San Diego Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Jeff Thayer and San Diego Civic Organist Raul Prieto Ramirez unite their talents for the perfect opening night of the 36th San Diego International Summer Organ Festival 2024
André Moisan, clarinets and saxophones; Frédéric Alarie, bass; Jean-Willy Kunz, organ; Hélène Lemay, trombone; Michel Berthiaume, drums.
Founded in 2015 by the renowned clarinetist and conductor André Moisan, the InSpirations Ensemble presents original music featuring unique sounds and interpretations combining classical, jazz, world music and contemporary musical techniques
PATRIOTIC SALUTE with Jelani Eddington
Jelani Eddington presents an Independence Day Theater Organ Concert featuring the American Songbook. Jelani Eddington is well-known as one of the best theater organists in the world with numerous CD recordings and publications
Bryan Anderson
First Prize Winner of the International Longwood Gardens Organ Competition, Bryan Anderson enjoys a versatile career as an organist, church musician, teacher, and musical collaborator. The Diapason (magazine), which named Bryan to its 20 under 30 Class of 2017, described him as “brilliant, yet quiet and unassuming.” Classical Voice of North Carolina described his playing as “simply first class.” Across various disciplines and specialties, Bryan’s reputation as an exceptional musician is well-established
Clara Gerdes
Following her San Diego Organ Pavilion debut in 2022 performing for Silent Movie Night, Clara Gerdes returns as a soloist. Clara Gerdes recently graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Alan Morrison, receiving diplomas in Early Music and Improvisation. She received first prizes in the Albert Schweitzer, AGO-Quimby Mid-Atlantic Regional and UNCSA School of the Arts organ competitions; was the recipient of the 2020 Baker Prize in Organ Performance and the 2021 Julia Sherman Award for Excellence in Organ Playing from Yale; and received the first annual Pogorzelski-Yankee scholarship from the American Guild of Organists
Jaebon Hwang is Director of Music Ministries and Organist at First United Methodist Church of San Diego. Previously she served as Organist at Westwood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles and Assistant Organist at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. Awarded the Fellow of American Guild of Organists (FAGO), the organization’s highest level of certification in 2011, she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Southern California in 2019, studying organ with Dr. Ladd Thomas. Prior to her organ study, she earned degrees in Composition and Scoring for Film & Multimedia from Korea National University of Arts and New York University, respectively.
As an active member of the American Guild of Organists, she has served on the executive board of the Los Angeles and San Diego chapters in several roles and in 2018 directed a Pipe Organ Encounter. She has worked with such prestigious organizations as Los Angeles Opera and San Diego Symphony and participated in the recording of an album of the “Hollywood Epic Brass” with in-demand studio musicians in 2014 and the “Mysterium” with violinist, Anne Akiko Meyers and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2022. Featured at the West Region Conventions of the American Guild of Organists in 2017 and 2019 and at the AGO OrganFest 2021, Dr. Hwang maintains an active performance schedule as a recitalist and as a collaborative artist. When she is not on the organ bench, she composes new music and teaches composition and music theory at San Diego State University. Several of her original compositions are published by Lorenz and Selah publishing companies.
Jan Kraybill
GRAMMY-nominated artist Jan Kraybill is a concert organist, pianist, and harpsichordist; a dynamic speaker, educator, church musician, and consultant; and an enthusiastic cheerleader for the power of music to change lives for the better. In addition to maintaining a very active concert schedule, Dr. Kraybill is organ conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. “Organist Jan Kraybill is a local treasure whose previous recordings have garnered acclaim from critics around the world. "The Orchestral Organ is a stunner CD...The Orchestral Organ will knock the socks off any music lover, even those who claim they don’t like organ music.” (The Kansas City Star)
Greg Zelek
Greg Zelek is the Principal Organist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Curator of the Overture Concert Organ, where he regularly performs and oversees all of the MSO's organ programming. Since September 2017, Greg has proudly held the Elaine and Nicholas Mischler Curatorship. In 2016, Greg was chosen by The Diapason as one of the top “20 Under 30” organists, a feature which selects the most successful young artists in the field
David Ball
with Trevor Nuckols, horn; Lauren McCaul and Alyce Reynaud, sopranos and Dr. Emma Whitten, organ
Juilliard-trained organist David Ball serves as Cathedral Organist and Head of Music Ministry at Christ Cathedral in the Diocese of Orange, California (formerly the Crystal Cathedral). David is a recognized and well-lauded young performer—The New York Times declared his appearance in Juilliard’s FOCUS! Festival “a rousing performance,” and as a winner of the AGO/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists, David performed as a Rising Star at the 2016 National AGO Convention in Houston. David was named one of The Diapason’s 2017 Class of 20 under 30, a peer-selected group of young people at the forefront of the organ field
Organ & Orchestra Concertos
Rául Prieto Ramírez, organ
Michael Gerdes, conductor
The Organ Pavilion Chamber Orchestra
THE NOT-SO-SILENT MOVIE NIGHT
Organist David Marsh will take on one of the most popular concerts of the Festival, the Not-So-Silent Movie Night featuring 1928 Buster Keaton´s Steamboat Bill Jr. accompanied by the Spreckels Organ (which features real sound effects like Firefighter Truck and Police Car Horn, Train Whistle, and Bird Tweets among others)
THE DOORS TRIBUTE
The Organ Pavilion Classic Rock Band
Where is the only venue featuring the great hits of Classic Rock by Pink-Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin or Heart performed by a seven-member Rock Band with an authentic pipe organ? Only in San Diego! The Organization is the exclusive Rock Band of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion with six of the best Rock musicians in the region and the San Diego Civic Organist
