This Sunday, January 29 at 4:00 p.m., world class organist Gordon Turk will present a concert on the four-manual Rodgers Infinity 484 organ at Christ Church in downtown Easton. Dr. Turk has prepared a program which is expected to showcase the capabilities of the large instrument and also delight the audience. A partial program listing includes Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Coronation March” from the opera La Prophète, Eugenè Gigout’s “Grand Choeur Dialogue”, “March on a Theme of Handel” by Alexandre Guilmant, and J. S. Bach’s “Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542”. Toward the conclusion of the concert, Turk will improvise based on hymn tunes solicited from the audience.
A critically acclaimed concert organist, Gordon Turk has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He was winner of the John Cerevalo Prize for “Excellence in the performance of the music of J. S. Bach,” and has been a prizewinner in the national improvisation competition of the American Guild of Organists.
Dr. Turk travels nationally and internationally for concert performances, and has played in Carnegie Hall, NYC, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and other landmark concert halls in the US. He has performed in the legendary Bolshoi Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Russia, and other cities of Russia, and in international organ festivals of Switzerland and the Ukraine. He has made two concert tours in Japan, and recently returned from his second concert tour in the Ukraine, playing solo performances and also concertos with orchestra.
Selected as one of the leading organists of the nation, Gordon Turk played in the opening recitals for the inauguration of the new pipe organ at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center in May 2006. In June he appeared at Kimmel Center in concert with American folk singers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and in November returned to Kimmel to play another organ recital. He has also collaborated with other musicians of note including Phillip Smith, Principal Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic and Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombonist of the New York Philharmonic; David Kim, Concertmaster, Philadelphia Orchestra; Elizabeth Hainen, Principal Harp, Philadelphia Orchestra; and Kathleen Bride, Chair of the Harp Department at the Eastman School of Music.
A graduate of the famed Curtis Institute of Music, Turk studied piano with Vladimir Sokoloff and organ with Alexander McCurdy. He also studied with New York composer and organist McNeil Robinson at the Manhattan School of Music, earning the Master’s degree and the Doctor of Musical Arts, both with honors.
As Resident Organist of the historic Auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ, Dr. Turk plays weekly recitals on the organ of over 11,600 pipes, during the summer season. He is also Founder and Artistic Director of the Summer Stars Chamber Music Festival, presenting outstanding talents from the US and abroad. He has recorded several CDs, and his CD “French Spectaculars on the Ocean Grove Auditorium Organ” recorded on the Dorian label, has been critically acclaimed.
Sunday’s concert is presented by the Christ Church Concert Series which is partially funded by The Talbot County and Maryland State Arts Councils. The public is invited and a freewill offering will be received. Suggested donation is $20. Christ Church is located at 111 S. Harrison Street, Easton, Maryland. For more information regarding this and other concerts, call 410-822-2677 or visit www.christchurcheaston.org.
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