Each year, in collaboration with the American Guild of Organists, we host a free organ concert to ring in the New Year. This is a special tradition that highlights the importance of the arts at Central Reformed Church.
Ringing in the New Year with the Organ.
With playing described as having “bracing virtuosity” (Chicago Classical Review) and being “fearless and extraordinary” (Amarillo-Globe News), Isabelle Demers has enraptured critics, presenters, and audience members around the globe. Her 2010 recital for the International Society of Organbuilders-American Institute of Organbuilders convention “left the entire congress in an atmosphere of ‘Demers fever’.” That same year, her performance at the Washington D.C. national convention of the American Guild of Organists caused the standing-room-only audience to call her back to the stage five times.
She has appeared in recital throughout Europe, Oman, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. Highlights include performances at the Maison Symphonique (Montreal, Québec), the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, Germany), City Hall (Stockholm, Sweden), the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing, China), and St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey (London, UK).
Dr. Demers is in continual high demand by her colleagues as witnessed by performances for numerous regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Institute of Organ Builders and International Society of Organbuilders, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Organ Historical Society. She has released three CD recordings on the Acis and Pro Organo labels. In 2018, she appeared as solo organ accompanist in an Acis recording of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem with the Baylor University Choir, recorded at Duruflé’s church in Paris. A native of Québec and a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School, Dr. Demers is Associate Professor of Organ at McGill University (Montréal, Québec). She was formerly the Joyce Bowden Chair in Organ and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University (Waco, Texas)
New Year’s Eve 2023 Concert
Hailed as “an absolute organ prodigy” by National Public Radio and “one of the most talented organists in the world” by the Chicago Tribune, concert organist Adam J. Brakel is a preeminent artist “with the technique and virtuosity that most concert pianists could only dream of.” (NPR) Adam’s celebrated performances span the globe—from coast to coast in the United States to across Europe and Asia. Brakel has one of the largest and most diverse performing repertoires in the world. His expansive list includes the entire spectrum of styles featuring the complete organ works of Bach, Bruhns, Buxtehude, Couperin, Liszt, de Grigny, Franck, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Duruflé.
Brakel’s performance highlights include the complete works of César Franck, and, most notably, the fiendishly difficult Six Etudes of Jeanne Demessieux, of which Adam is one of the few organists in the world to have performed and recorded in its entirety. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory and Duquesne University, Adam has a rich and decorated musical pedigree, having studied with Donald Sutherland and Dame Gillian Weir. He has taken top prizes in the Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition, the Gruenstein Memorial Organ Competition, the John Rodland Memorial Scholarship Competition, the French Organ Music Seminar Competition, and the Carlene Neihart International Organ Competition. He has also earned the André Marchal Award for Excellence in Performance as well as the Oundle Award, among other honors. In addition to his concert career, Adam was most recently appointed Director of Music for St. James Cathedral and the Diocese of Orlando, Florida.
New Year’s Eve 2022 Concert
Gregory Hand is associate professor of organ at the University of Iowa. Prior to this appointment he held the position of University Chapel Organist at Northwestern University, where he also taught in the Music Theory department. He was awarded the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied organ with James Kibbie and harpsichord with Edward Parmentier. Dr. Hand is in high demand as a performer and pedagogue. He was recently appointed to a five-year term on the jury of the Internationale Orgelwoche Nürnberg (ION), and has given recitals and master-classes in the United States, France, Spain, Germany and Brazil.
His debut CD, “The Complete Gospel Preludes of William Bolcom” on the Naxos label marked the world premiere recording of all twelve of these landmark pieces. Critics praised the recording as “stunning” (American Record Guide) and noted the “sonorous and probing performances” (Gramophone), and the “brilliance of his technique” (allmusic.com).
He also was the first organist to play all twelve Gospel Preludes in one concert: first at the University of Michigan with the composer in attendance, and later at Princeton University, University of Glasgow, St Giles Cathedral (Edinburgh), and the Twin Cities (MN) chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Dr. Hand has often collaborated with other instrumentalists to perform new music. With bassoonist Benjamin Coelho he premiered Adrian Vernon Fish’sKassoq at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Redlands, CA. With Amy Schendel he premiered Patrick Schulz’s Fanfare for Trumpet and Organ, which appears on a recently released CD.
He is also very active as a harpsichordist and continuo player. Recent engagements include The Four Seasons with the Des Moines Symphony and Anne Akiko Meyers; Giulio Cesare with the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Ritorno d’Ulisse with Chicago Opera Theater; and several concerts with Ars Antigua, a Chicago-based period ensemble. He also conducted from the harpsichord a concert performance of Jacopo Peri’s Euridice at the University of Iowa in 2011.
Dr. Hand has participated in several international organ competitions, including the Grand Prix deChartres (France), St. Albans (England), Prix Andre Marchal (France), and the Dublin International Organ Competition.
