Catching up with Stephen Tharp Reflections Ten Years Later

Interview Stephen rehearsing at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Catching up with Stephen Tharp Reflections ten years later By Joyce Johnson Robinson Stephen Tharp at Victoria Hall, Geneva, in 2014 (photo credit: Christophe Renaud) n interview with Stephen Tharp in La Verna, Tuscany (some of which is outside the box would take a book. But was as a student when, at age 20, I spent A appeared a decade ago in The Dia- up on YouTube). This is the place, on connect all the dots over time and it’s the three weeks at the Haarlem Interna- pason (“A conversation with Stephen top of a mountain and a 90-minute drive richest and most diverse menu of experi- tional Organ Academy as the result of a Tharp: Catching up with a well-traveled from Florence, where Francis of Assisi ences I could ever have imagined. And as generous scholarship from Illinois Col- recitalist,” January 2004). At that time, spent his later years on land that was an American, it is seeing the forest from lege. That experience was life-changing Tharp’s discography included six record- bequeathed to him. It is a picturesque outside the trees, in spades, and that has in that it turned my thinking upside ings, and he had made over twenty spot surrounded by forests untouched determined a great deal for me. down and, consequently, permanently intercontinental tours. Among the topics for some 900 years; in the center is a re-directed the way I would conceive discussed were Tharp’s many concert basilica where there is a regular sum- You’ve also been busy with record- performance as it is informed by music tours, his advocacy of new music, and mer festival of organ concerts catering ings. Would you summarize these, history and aesthetics, standards that interest in transcriptions. In the decade to an immense tourist crowd that packs and tell us about your experiences remain in place to this day. I can’t fully since, Tharp has continued his travels the house for recitals starting at 9 p.m. making them? express how thankful I am that this was and performances, and received many (when the temperature cools down This is a discussion of but a few of an experience I had at a young age, when accolades. He presently resides in New enough for a full church to be tolerable). my projects. Ultimately, audio and these influences had the chance to be York City, where he serves as associate A small group of friends and colleagues video recordings are one’s most power- the most powerful. director of music at the Church of Our celebrated afterwards with a private ful tools. How one can spread the word On this side of the pond is the first Saviour. Stephen Tharp will be the fea- meal that included regional wines. on Facebook, iTunes, or YouTube puts commercial recording of the Casavant tured performer at the closing recital What is awesome for the organ in global exposure at your fingertips, which organ Opus 3837 at the Brick Presbyte- of 2014’s American Guild of Organists central European culture is that festivals is wonderful. Listening as a child to LPs rian Church in Manhattan. This instru- national convention in Boston. like this, well attended, grow on trees. of many organs, I often fantasized about ment, a cooperative design between In Germany alone, you could hit a series getting to these instruments one day, director of music Keith Tóth and Jean- Joyce Robinson: Our previous every weekend for two years without either to perform on them or record Louis Coignet, is a masterpiece. A syn- interview’s title called you a “well- repeating yourself—funding in place, them myself. One of my greatest bat- thesis between the French symphonic traveled recitalist,” and that seems quite often new organs, and audiences tery chargers, the kind that continues and American orchestral, the organ cov- truer than ever today. Tell us about that support its continuation. There to inspire in the long term, has been ers music from Jongen to Tournemire to your concert tours (and how you seems something about Old World cul- recording a number of these landmark Hakim to Guilmant, in a warm acoustic keep track of all those recitals!). ture that’s founded in the deepest roots, instruments, both for JAV Recordings environment. There is also my Organ My grandfather, who was director of centuries of traditions under them, that and the Aeolus label in Germany. Classics from Saint Patrick Cathedral personnel management at Blue Cross/ maintains a thriving life no matter what The first opportunity like this was St. in New York City—all somewhat lighter Blue Shield in Chicago for some 40-plus the come-and-go cultural shifts of any Sulpice, Paris, where I recorded in Octo- fare, some organ solo, some organ plus years, and also a lecturer at both North- given generation—a kind of condensed ber 2001, a somewhat nervous traveler trumpet, aside from a few heftier pieces western University and University of richness around which you can build an given the horrific events of September by Cook, Vierne, and Widor. It was a Chicago post-World War II, was a real entire life. 11 the month before—and amplified by great pleasure to have been able to make business model for me. He was the As for my own tours, 1,400 concerts a flight over to Paris on a plane that was these two recordings. ultimate paper hoarder, keeping track of means too many to name. Standouts mostly empty. In 2005 I was back in St. All of my commercial CD releases all of his correspondence, lectures, and include the Gewandhaus, Leipzig; the Sulpice for two more projects. A large from St. Sulpice thus far are on JAV, and so forth, throughout his life. For better Igreja de Lapa in Porto, Portugal; Vic- choir, comprising several groups, was all engineered by the outstanding Chris- or worse, he taught me to keep a paper toria Hall, Geneva; the Frauenkirche, assembled to record the Widor Mass, op. toph Frommen, who also owns the Aeo- record of everything I’d accomplished. Dresden (which was only recently recon- 36, for choir and two organs (main and lus label in Germany. It was with From- Of course, I let go of a great deal with structed); the inaugural organ week of choir organ), which was never before men, and for Aeolus, that I embarked time, but, as far as concert programs go, the new Seifert organ at the Cathedral recorded in St. Sulpice. With Daniel upon my biggest recording project to I have saved one copy of everything I in Speyer, Germany, with its 14-second Roth at the grand orgue, Mark Dwyer date: The Complete Organ Works of have ever played. Consequently, after acoustic—a whole new character for and I played musical benches with Jeanne Demessieux. I had played much 1,400 concerts, I am glad I can look back, Alain’s Trois Danses; Ben van Oosten’s the orgue de choeur in the front of the of her music starting as early as my trace them, and keep track—like keep- glorious festival in The Hague; twice church. In the two days that followed college years, but to document all of ing a diary. My 1300th solo recital was at at the Berlin Cathedral, with another that project, I had the great pleasure of her organ solo works on recording was St. Laurenskerk in Rotterdam, on their concert set for summer 2015; Cologne recording Dupré’s Le Chemin de la Croix an exciting and challenging prospect. very large Marcussen organ, in Novem- Cathedral (with its 5,000 regular con- there. Dupré recorded this years before Too many stereotypes were also float- ber 2008. A few days later, in St. Mar- certgoers during the summer Orgelfeier- in St. Sulpice on LP, which went out of ing around about this music: that it was tin, Dudelange, Luxembourg, was the stunden, encouraged to bring their own print. So, my recording is the only one a language worth little more than an concert that coincided with my Jeanne lawn chairs if necessary and seat them- available of this entire work on the organ extension of Dupré’s harmonic idiom, Demessieux Complete Organ Works CD selves in the aisles, which they do, going most associated with the composer. more cerebral than communicative, and set (Aeolus Recordings) “release party,” wild over a program of Guillou, Alain, In the summer/early fall of 2008 I not worth the effort. I sought to prove where the recording was officially made Dupré, and Litaize); the summer festival made two more recordings for JAV this very wrong. available to the public for the first time. at St. Bavo, Haarlem (there are no words within a month of each other, which At the time of the recording, several It remains my largest recording project for the experience of playing this organ); were released at different times. One pieces remained unpublished, and to date, which I will discuss more a little playing the de Grigny Messe on the Dom is my organ adaptation of J. S. Bach’s so Chris Frommen and I sought cop- later. The recording led directly to a Bedos at Ste. Croix in Bordeaux, and so Goldberg Variations on Paul Fritts’s ies of these in manuscript form from series of three concerts in October 2010 on. In addition to that, my one and only stunning magnum opus instrument at Pierre Labric, one of Demessieux’s at the Cathedral of St.

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