and the District of Columbia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists

present The 50th BIRTHDAY of the ÆOLIAN-SKINNER organ and the Garnell Copeland Memorial Recital

Friday 9 March 2018 at 7:00pm

A recreation of Garnell Copeland’s 3rd March 1968 Inaugural program

J. S. BACH (1685-1750) Fantasia & Fugue in G minor BWV 542 Franz LISZT (1811-1886) Fantasia & Fugue ‘Ad Nos ad salutarem’ S. 259

INTERMISSION

Garnell Stuart COPELAND (1942-1977) Prelude in C minor (dedicated to Leo Sowerby) Marcel DUPRÉ (1886-1971) Fileuse (Suite Bretonne Op. 21) Leo SOWERBY (1895-1968)

Passacaglia (1968) (written for the 1968 occasion and dedicated to Edgar Romig, Epiphany Rector 1964-92) Leo SOWERBY

Pageant (1931) -

A pre-concert lecture will be given at 6.00pm by MICHAEL HART on the history of the ÆOLIAN-SKINNER organ

JEREMY FILSELL Admission Free - A freewill offering is invited The Church of the Epiphany on G Street NW in Washington DC was founded in 1842 has always supported great music through its choir, its instruments and, forty years ago, the institution of its 52 weeks-a-year Tuesday Concert Series, presenting largely national but often international artists in concert every Tuesday lunchtime; Epiphany's message, mission and ministry has been shaped as much by its musical profile as by anything else.

The church building was consecrated in 1852 and within six years, the congregation had established the Epiphany Church home to help the poor and sick, an aspect of social ministry that still thrives here today. The American Civil War split the congregation. Senator Jefferson Davis rented pew no. 14, and three of his children were confirmed at the church, but after secession, when Davis moved to Richmond VA, and became the Confederacy's President, the pew was rented by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. On March 6, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln attended the funeral of General Frederick Lander here. In the Spring of 1893, Epiphany’s choir became the first mixed vested choir in the city and music has since remained one of the church’s primary ministries. Today, Epiphany provides a spiritual focus for all people representative of the Washington metropolitan community. Diverse in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, age, theology, ability, politics, and socio-economic status, Epiphany welcomes all who seek a place of acceptance, affirmation and inspiration. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the installation of the Aeolian-Skinner organ - an instrument that contemporaneously was the most highly regarded concert organ in Washington (a Washington Star review of Garnell Stuart Copeland’s dedicatory recital offered that “Musical pilgrims to Washington will want to include a visit to Epiphany Church on downtown G Street to see and hear its stunning new Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ.”). Quite probably now eclipsed in such distinction, this organ nonetheless remains one of great color and versatility. It was dedicated in March 1968, in memory of Adolph Torovsky, Organist-Choirmaster at Epiphany for almost 50 years until that year and recitalists in the over the years have included the great French organists Marcel Dupré and Pierre Cochereau, besides many other important names in the US organ world. Since Epiphany’s founding, the church has had five organs. The first instrument was built by Henry Erben in 1846, two years after the church’s completion (a rather quaint budget item of the day was the $30 a year set aside for boys to pump the organ bellows). Coinciding with renovations and expansion of the church, Erben’s organ was enlarged in 1859 before a third instrument, by perhaps the major builder of the day – the Hook & Hastings Company of Boston, was placed in the rear balcony in 1874 (Opus 771). This was rebuilt and moved to the chancel in the early 1890s and the present- day chancel casework dates from this time. In 1911, the Ernest M. Skinner Organ Co. built a 29-rank instrument incorporating pipes from the Hook instrument (Opus 187 – further expanded to 36 ranks in 1917).

The current organ by Aeolian-Skinner Company of Boston came towards the end of the firm's history (it closed finally in 1971 with the Kennedy Center organ - just a few blocks from the Epiphany - as its swan song). The Epiphany instrument was dedicated in March 1968, exactly 50 years ago, in memory of Adolph Torovsky, Organist- Choirmaster himself at Epiphany for almost 50 years. When first installed, it incorporated 50 ranks and 2,761 pipes, but with additions over the last 40 years, the instrument today comprises 64 ranks (3,467 pipes). Pipework existing from previous organs includes the 8' Bourdon in the Swell from the 1874 Hook & Hastings organ and the 8' Spitzflöte from the 1911 E. M. Skinner. Also from the 1911 E. M. Skinner are the twelve lowest wooden pipes of the Ophicleide in the Solo. The Tuba, French Horn and English Horn were originally part of a large E. M. Skinner organ built for the Beacon Hill residence of the late Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Farnham Greene, an instrument often played by Virgil Fox on visits to Boston. A recent part-restoration (2011) of the organ by the Di Gennaro-Hart Organ Company included much needed repair and re-leathering, the first phase of a hoped-for continuation of work to ensure the instrument’s longevity. In a Washington Star review of the 1968 dedicatory recital, critic Lawrence Sears suggested that: “Musical pilgrims to Washington will now want to include a visit to Epiphany Church on downtown G Street to see and hear its stunning Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ.” The organ contemporaneously was perhaps the most highly regarded concert organ in Washington, yet while it has now been eclipsed in such distinction, it nonetheless remains one of great color and versatility and adorns worship week by week here. In 2014, Orglarstvo Škrabl of Slovenia were commissioned to build a 3-stop portative organ for the church and given by choir member Susan Manola in memory of her parents. This adds flexibility to Epiphany’s music-making and is regularly hired by baroque vocal and instrumental groups within Washington DC. Epiphany’s organs continue to uplift and edify here in this place.

Past Music Directors here at Epiphany included Garnell Copeland (1966-1977), whose life and legacy we celebrate tonight. He followed Adolf Torovsky’s 50-year tenure, and the Trompette-en-Chamade (1978) was given in memory by the congregation after his tragic murder (Epiphany remains the only organ to contain two en-chamade reed stops in the DC metro area). The touching biographical note on Copeland written by the Rector, Rev. Edgar Romig is below. Charles Callahan presided over the music between 1977-1986 and James Buonamani served at Epiphany prior to his move to St. James Episcopal Church, Los Angeles. Eric Plutz was Director of Music 1998-2005 and moved to become Organist at Princeton University. Christian Clough was succeeded by Jeremy Filsell in 2012. The present organ’s curator is Bard Wickkeiser, also curator of the organs in Washington National Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Jeremy Filsell

Jeremy Filsell is one of only a few virtuoso performers as both pianist and organist. He has appeared as a solo pianist in Russia, Scandinavia and throughout the USA and UK. His concerto repertoire encompasses Bach, Mozart and Beethoven through to Shostakovich, John Ireland, and Rachmaninov. He has recorded the solo piano music of Herbert Howells, Bernard Stevens, Eugene Goossens, and Johann Eschmann for Guild and recently released were discs of Rachmaninov’s piano music for Signum and two of French Mélodies accompanying Michael Bundy (baritone) for Naxos. Recordings forthcoming include the 1st and 2nd Piano Concertos of Rachmaninov (recorded at the Wanamaker store, Philadelphia, with Peter Conte realizing the orchestral score on the organ), the piano music of Francis Pott (b. 1957) and Michel Boulnois’ (1907-2008 – a student of Marcel Dupré) organ music.

Jeremy Filsell is on the international roster of Steinway Piano Artists and has recorded for BBC Radio 3, USA, and Scandinavian radio networks in solo and concerto roles. His discography comprises more than 30 solo recordings. Gramophone magazine commented on the series of 12 CDs comprising the premiere recordings of Marcel Dupré’s complete organ works for Guild in 2000 that it was ’one of the greatest achievements in organ recording’. In 2005, Signum released a 3-disc set of the six organ symphonies of Louis Vierne, recorded on the 1890 Cavaillé-Coll organ in St. Ouen Rouen (BBC Radio 3's Disc of the Week in September of that year). He has taught at universities, summer schools, and conventions in both the UK and USA and has served on international competition juries in England and Switzerland. Recent solo recital engagements have taken him across the USA and UK and to Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Australia and New Zealand. In North America, he concertizes under the auspices of Philip Truckenbrod Concert Artists.

As a student of Nicolas Kynaston in London and Daniel Roth in Paris, Jeremy Filsell studied as an Organ Scholar at Oxford University (Keble College) before completing graduate studies in piano performance with David Parkhouse and Hilary McNamara at the Royal College of Music in London. He was awarded a PhD in Musicology at Birmingham Conservatoire/BCU for research involving aesthetic and interpretative issues in the music of Marcel Dupré. Before moving to the USA in 2008, he held Academic and Performance lectureships in at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and was a lay clerk in the Queen’s choir at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He currently combines an international recital and teaching career with being director of music at The Church of the Epiphany in Washington DC, artist-in-residence at Washington National Cathedral, and Professor of Organ at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. www.jeremyfilsell.com

LP Recording (1978) with notes by the Rector, Edgar Romig (Copeland is pictured here at the original 1968 Epiphany console)

The 1968 Organ dedicatory program

Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, 1968 8' State Trumpet (Gallery) [additions: E.M. Skinner Organ Company, 1982] Tremulant 64 ranks, 62 stops and 3,467 pipes Zymbelstern Great (Manual II) 2 ¾” wind Manual III Sostenuto 16' Principal 16' Gemshorn Solo (Manual IV) 10” wind 8' Principal 16' Violone 8' Gemshorn 8' Cello 8' Rohrflöte 8' Cello Celeste 4' Octave 8' Gamba 4' Spitzflöte 8' Gamba Celeste 2' Super Octave 8' Silver Flute IV-V Fourniture 8' Silver Flute Celeste IV Cymbal 8' Flute Harmonique 16' Contra Posaune (Ped) 4' Flute Octaviante 8' Posaune (Ped) 8' English Horn 8' Trompette-en-Chamade 8' French Horn 4' Clairon-en-Chamade 8' Tuba Chimes (Solo) 4' Tuba Clarion Tremulant Positiv (Manual I) 2 ½” wind 8' Trompette-en-Chamade (Great) 8' Gedeckt 8' Flute Harmonique (Solo) Gallery (Manual IV) 10” wind 4' Octave 8' State Trumpet 4' Koppelflöte McKim Tower Chimes 2' Octave 1-1/3' Larigot Pedal 2¾” & 4” wind IV Scharf 32' Resultant (various) 8' Krummhorn 16' Principal Tremulant 16' Violone (Solo) 8' Posaune (Ped) 16' Gemshorn (Great) 8' State Trumpet (Gallery) 16' Subbass 8' Trompette-en-Chamade (Great) 10-2/3 Gemshorn (Great) 4' Clairon-en-Chamade (Great) 8' Octave 8' Gemshorn (Great) Swell I (Manual III, East side) 3 ¾” wind *' Gedeckt 8' Bourdon 4' Super Octave 8' Viole de Gambe 4' Flute (Solo) 8' Viole Celeste 4' Gedeckt 4' Nachthorn IV Mixture 2' Flachflöte 32' Posaune II Sesquialtera 16' Ophicleide (Solo) III Glockenspiel 16' Posaune 8' Vox Humaine 16' Hautbois (Swell) Tremulant 8' Posaune 4' Posaune Swell II (Manual III, West side) 3 ¾” wind 8' Trompette-en-Chamade (Great) 8' Spitzflöte 4' Clairon-en-Chamade (Great) 8' Flute Celeste 4' Principal Pedal Divide (divides pedal board at Tenor C) III-V Plein Jeu 10 divisional pistons to each manual 16' Hautbois 24 General pistons, 64 memory levels, Sequencer 8' Trompette 3 adjustable crescendo settings, Great-Positiv 4' Chalumeau manual transfer

NEW RECORDING RELEASE

JEREMY FILSELL at the organ of The Church of the Epiphany, Washington DC

GASTON LITAIZE (1907-1991) Musique pour Orgue

Final: Messe pour tous le temps (1948) Prélude Liturgiques (varié) Variations sur un Noël Angevin & Final (Douze Pièces) (1938) Arches (1988) Épiphanie (1984) Prèlude et Danse Fugée (1964) Reges Tharsis (Méditation sur l’offertoire de l’Épiphanie) (1991) Final: Messe pour Toussaint (1964)

On Sale now $15