Wanamaker Organ Hour

This month Peter Richard Conte and Jill Pasternak welcome virtuoso organist Isabelle Demers, Organ Professor and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University in Texas, where she teaches organ and courses in the organ curriculum. Ms. Demers recently performed on the Wanamaker Organ and it's music from that concert we'll hear this week.

Join Jill Pasternak and Wanamaker Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte in our monthly program, recorded at Macy's Center City, on the world-famous Wanamaker Organ.  This month, it's works by J.S. Bach and Sir Arthur Sullivan, plus a composition by a Philadelphia favorite: organist Robert Elmore.  This year marks the 100th anniversary of Elmore's birth.  Sunday, January 6, 5 to 6 pm.

Program:

WRTI's Jill Pasternak and Macy's Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte present a special program of gorgeous organ works this month, including:

Mussorgsky: Night On Bald Mountain
Chopin: Military Polonaise
Liszt: Consolation No. 5
Gilbert and Sullivan: Music from “Patience”
Widor: Andante from Symphony No. 2
Vierne: Carillon de Westminster from “24 pieces de fantaisie”

Join us on Sunday, November 4th, 5 to 6 pm.

Join WRTI's Jill Pasternak and Macy's Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte as they present a variety of performances of great works including Dudley Buck's Concert Variations on 'The Last Rose of Summer', Gabriel Faure's Nocturne from Shylock, and Sowerby's Comes Autumn Time.

As a special treat, they'll reprise a live performance from our June 2012 Organ Day - Wagner's Siegfried's Funeral March and Immolation Scene. Sunday, October 7th, 5 to 6 pm. Tune in!

This month's show features some truly outstanding young talent playing the Wanamaker Organ. It's the second of two shows featuring students of Alan Morrison from the Curtis Institute of Music. This is an annual collaboration between Curtis and Macy's, which offers the students a week-long workshop with Peter Richard Conte at the Wanamaker Organ, exploring the Symphonic School of organ repertoire, performance, and registration.

WRTI's Jill Pasternak and Macy's Grand Court Organist Peter Richard Conte are joined by Alan Morrison, chair of organ studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, and four of his students: Thomas Sheehan, Bryan Anderson, Caroline Robinson, and Patrick Kreeger on Sunday, July 1st, from 5 to 6 pm. 

Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Anderson will perform a number of works, including Seth Bingham's Roulade, Richard Wagner's Overture to Tannhauser, and Julius Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm.

It's a special hour of organ music featuring Peter Richard Conte performing works by Bernstein, Elgar, and Jongen on the massive Wanamaker Organ on Sunday, May 5th from 5 to 6 pm . Mr. Conte is the Grand Court Organist of the Wanamaker Organ, Macy's Philadelphia. Your host is WRTI's Jill Pasternak.

PROGRAM:

Leonard Bernstein: Candide Overture
(transcribed for organ by Peter Richard Conte)

Ahead of a historic performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Macy's Center City Philadelphia, Jim Cotter speaks with Peter Richard Conte, the Grand Court Organist of the Wanamaker Organ, and co-host of WRTI's Wanamaker Organ Hour.

David Patrick Stearns looks back on the history of the Wanamaker Organ and explores the workings of the world's largest functioning musical instrument.