Lenten Organ Recitals Series

Six top Redlands pipe organists will present a series of Lenten Organ Recitals on the First Congregational Church of Redlands Turner pipe organ. They are Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. and include internationally-renowned University of Redlands organist Frederick Swann. After a Lenten scripture reading, each organist will perform sacred music. Location is 2 W. Olive Avenue. Featured Feb. 18 is Dr. Ed Yarnelle, who received his doctorate in keyboard performance at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind. He was the organist and choir director for the Hemet United Methodist Church and was the founder and director of the Yucaipa Community String Orchestra from 1996-2008 when he also taught piano at Mt. San Jacinto Community College. He has taught music and psychology at San Bernardino Valley College since 1994, has served many years as professional accompanist for the University of Redlands, San Bernardino Valley College and Moreno Valley College and performs chamber music with the Amabile Trio. Performing Feb. 25 is William Zeitler, organist at the First Presbyterian Church of San Bernardino. He is an international composer for film and concert ensembles/orchestras, accomplished organist, pianist and harpsichordist and one of the few professional players in the world on the "glass armonica," an instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin for which Mozart and Beethoven composed. He has performed on the glass armonica at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., at the Hollywood Bowl and on film such as Disney's "Big Hero 6." In 2013 he published the first book-length history of the glass armonica, a project requiring 14 years of research. Dr. Lois Musmann performs March 3. She is a Fulbright Teaching Senior Specialist in music, and a conductor and harpsichordist who also teaches at Notre Dame de Namur University. As a visiting scholar at UC Berkley, she was the author of a recent national survey of professional women conductors in partnership with the Women's Philharmonic, and has written for the University of California International and Area Studies Digital Collection. She recently conducted Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and Enrique Gonzales' opera "Serafina y Archangela," a world premiere, in Los Angeles and the Tijuana Cultural Center. She was conductor of the Euterpe Opera Theatre in Los Angeles and founder and conductor of Pacifica Chamber Orchestra and of the Collegium Musicum at the University of Redlands. Jeffrey Rickard is featured March 10. Former director of Choral Activities to the University of Redlands, he developed three on-campus choral organizations, the University Choir, the Chapel Singers, and Madrigalia. The UR choral program gained an international reputation through its yearly presentations of the Feast of Lights which Rickard expanded to include major choral works and original compositions and arrangements. He is the founder-director of the Community Chorus of Redlands, has served as organist at Trinity Episcopal Church and as musical director for several summer Redlands Bowl Broadway musicals. Frederick Swann concludes the Lenten series March 17. He is past president (2002-2008) of the American Guild of Organists, an organization of more than 20,000 members in chapters throughout the United States and several foreign countries. He is Organist Emeritus of the Crystal Cathedral and of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles and Organ Artist-in-Residence at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert. He is University Organist and Artist Teacher of Organ at UR and is noted as having probably presided over more ranks of pipes and stop knobs than any other organist in history. He holds degrees from Northwestern University and the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was for 10 years chair of the Organ Department at the Manhattan School of Music and served on the faculties of Teacher's College of Columbia University and The School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary. He has performed nearly 3,000 recitals in major churches and concert halls in seven countries including Korea and Russia.