HOLIDAY ORGAN SPECTACULAR
Where: Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
When: Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
How much: $18 and up
Tickets: 714-556-2787 or www.pacificsymphony.org
Ever wondered, as you sat through a concert at Segerstrom Concert Hall, what that gigantic organ would sound like if they fired it up?
Well, now’s your chance. Pacific Symphony invites you to celebrate the holiday season with the king of instruments. Nationally respected organist Todd Wilson and members of Pacific Symphony will play a program that artfully blends sacred music with familiar Christmas carols and other holiday chestnuts.
Several members of the symphony will be featured soloists. But the star of the show is indisputably the William J. Gillespie Concert Organ, a 4,322-pipe, $3.1 million behemoth that just might change your mind about a stodgy old church instrument.
Regarded across America and around the world as one of today’s best concert organists, Todd Wilson is head of the Organ Department at The Cleveland Institute of Music and Director of Music and Worship at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio. He also serves as curator of the E.M. Skinner pipe organ at Severance Hall (home of The Cleveland Orchestra), and he’s the House Organist for the newly restored Aeolian organ at the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio.
PROGRAM
BACH: Prelude on “In Dulci Jublio”
TRADITIONAL (arr. Mahpar): “The First Noel”
TRADITIONAL (arr. Mahpar): “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” /“In Dulci Jublio”
COHEN (arr. Mahpar): “Hallelujah”
SCHUBERT: Serenade
TRADITIONAL (arr. Mahpar): “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
TRADITIONAL (arr. Lind): “Fum! Fum! Fum!”
CACCINI/Vavilov: “Ave Maria”
HANDEL: “Hallelujah” Chorus from Messiah
~ Intermission ~
HANNAHS: Fantasia on the Coventry Carol
MATTHEWS: Pastorale for Clarinet and Organ
DUPRÉ: Variations on a Noel, Op. 20
TRADITIONAL (arr. Mahpar): “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
OGAARD: Christmas Fantasy for Violin and Organ
KENT (arr. Mahpar): “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
TRADITIONAL/HOLST (arr. Mahpar): “Once in the Royal David’s City” /“In the Bleak Midwinter”
DAVIS (arr. Mahpar): “The Little Drummer Boy”
HOLIDAY SING ALONG
“Silent Night”
“Joy to the World”
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas”