Haunted Halloween Concert

Music, Gettysburg! Presents Free Haunted Halloween Concert Featuring Internationally Acclaimed Organist Peggy Haas Howell on October 30, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.
Music, Gettysburg! invites audiences to celebrate Halloween with an evening of mystery, drama, and spectacular organ music when internationally acclaimed organist Peggy Haas Howell presents a Haunted Halloween Concert on Friday, October 30, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. in the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary Chapel.
Joining Ms. Howell will be Music, Gettysburg! Chair Mark Oldenburg as narrator, baritone Latham Gunn of The Gettysburg Choral Society, and singers from the Gettysburg Children's Choir in a program that blends classical masterworks, film favorites, and dramatic storytelling.
The featured work in the concert is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for organ and narrator by Canadian composer, Rachel Laurin, composed in 2021. Each character in Washington Irving's classic short story has a unique musical theme that is played on a particular organ sound. The narration and organ demonstration
together bring the exciting story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman to life!
Other highlights include J. S. Bach's iconic Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, an excerpt from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, John Williams' mischievous Double Trouble from a Harry Potter film, Louis Vierne's spooky Gargouilles et chimères (Gargoyles and Chimera), and Henri Mulet's showpiece Tu es petra et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus te (Thou art the rock and the devil shall not prevail against thee). Together, these works show the organ’s range from quiet suspense to dramatic power.
On Saturday, October 31, from 10:00 a.m. until noon, Ms. Howell will present a free workshop, open to the public and sponsored by the Harrisburg Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Titled Making Early Dutch and German Organ Music Come Alive, the session will explore historically informed performance practices of
the 17th and 18th centuries. Ms. Howell will demonstrate early performance techniques and lead a master class with volunteer performers.
Both the concert and workshop will showcase the magnificent Andover Organ, Opus 84, in the Church of the Abiding Presence. Built in the northern European tracker organ tradition, the instrument features 31 stops and 38 ranks of pipes and has drawn distinguished organists from around the world.
Peggy Haas Howell has earned an international reputation as one of America's foremost concert organists, appearing in recital throughout the United States and Europe. Described by The Plain Dealer of Cleveland as a "play-anything virtuoso", she won First Prize in the American Guild of Organists' National Young Artists Organ Playing Competition in 1974 and shared the top prize in the prestigious St. Albans International Organ Interpretation Competition in England in 1977.
She serves as Organist and Choirmaster at St. John's Episcopal Church and Director of Cantate Children's and Youth Choir in Lynchburg, Virginia, and is National Vice President of the American Guild of Organists. Ms. Howell earned degrees from Susquehanna University and Union Theological Seminary, New York City, with additional study in Hamburg, Germany.
The Haunted Halloween Concert offers a unique opportunity to hear one of the nation's premier organists alongside talented local musicians from The Gettysburg Choral Society and the Gettysburg Children's Choir in a festive evening celebrating the rich traditions of Halloween through music and storytelling.
Admission is free, and a freewill offering will be received. For more information about the concert or workshop, visit musicgettysburg.org or harrisburgago.org.