by Vincent DeLuise with Steven Minkler
Listeners were treated to an extraordinary aural experience on the afternoon of February 5, 2017, at St. John’s Church, while helping raise nearly $6,000 to benefit the church’s music and community programs.
Heroic Music for Brass and Organ featured members of the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra and guest organist Joseph Ripka. Members of the Kellogg family, longtime members of St. John’s and WSO patrons, provided the funding to underwrite all production costs of the concert.
Maestro Leif Bjaland led a superb sextet of trumpets and trombones, tympani, and the outstanding organist Joseph Ripka, in a program featuring works by Richard Strauss, Gabrieli, Johann Sebastian Bach, Gaston Litaize, Jeremiah Clarke, Connecticut native Charles Ives, Henry Purcell, Charles Widor, Marcel Dupré, and Eugene Gigout.
John Charles Thomas was terrific as he channeled Maurice Andre on piccolo trumpet in Clarke’s famous tune, “Prince of Denmark March.” Jen Hinkle was amazing on bass trombone! The brass section also included Gino Villareal and Scott McIntosh on trumpet, and Scott Cranston and Marshall Brown on trombone. Tymapnist/percussionist Peter Coutsouridis rounded out the WSO’s ensemble.
Organist Ripka magisterially essayed Bach’s iconic “Toccata and Fugue in D minor,” literally shaking the building with thundering bass produced by the church’s McManis Organ.
The church was filled with over 200 enthusiastic listeners, who offered several standing ovations throughout the concert in honor of the wonderful musicianship.
Listening to this spectacular performance while seated near one of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s four magisterial and luminescent stained glass windows allowed for a rare and beautiful reverie.
The Kellogg family is to be commended and saluted for their sponsorship of the event. Bravi tutti! (And yes, the audience got home before the Super Bowl!)
Look ahead for more concerts at St. John’s — and why not a “Heroic Music 2” in the near future??!