Organist Janet Yieh in Concert (1 Concert - 2 Pipe Organs)

Our Concert Series continues the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the von Beckerath organ with JANET YIEH who will perform Sunday February 12th at 4:00pm. She will play the premiere of Variations and Theme, composed by Rachel Laurin who was commissioned by the First Congregational Church to celebrate the von Beckerath organ's Golden Anniversary.

Ms. Yieh is the Director of Music at Church of the Heavenly Rest on the Upper East Side in New York City. Formerly she served as Associate Organist at Trinity Church Wall Street where she played weekly services founded the St. Paul’s Chapel Choir accompanied the Grammy-nominated Trinity Choir and Trinity Youth Chorus. An innovative concert recitalist Janet was named one of ’20 under 30′ promising artists by The Diapason magazine in 2017. She has performed concert tours throughout the United States and across the globe with highlights including New York’s Alice Tully Hall Washington’s National Cathedral San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral Yale University’s Woolsey Hall Taipei’s Aletheia University Chapel and Japan’s Momoyama St. Andrew’s University Chapel. A native of Alexandria Virginia Janet earned a Master’s of Musical Arts (2018) and Master’s Degree in Organ Performance (2017) from the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music and a Bachelor of Music in Organ (2015) from the Juilliard School.

The program will include music by Theodore Dubois and J. S. Bach, as well as arrangements of well-known hymn tunes by Gerre Hancock and Carl Haywood. Janet Yieh is known to champion the works of women composers, so the program will also include works by Christa Rakich (b. 1952), Florence Price (1887-1924), Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), and Jessica French (young woman composer in her 20s with the rare ability of synesthesia, in which her various senses are linked to one another in the form of colors associated with notes, timbres, and words). She will play BOTH the 66 rank Kimball (1931 Chancel Organ) and the 77 rank Beckerath (1972 Gallery Organ) – a total of over 8,000 pipes!

The final selection will be the Premiere of: Variations and Theme, The Canadian composer, Rachel Laurin, based her composition on The Music Window, which was created and installed to honor G. Dene Barnard and his 30 years of service as Organist and Choir Director at First Church. In the two panels of the window, Ms. Laurin saw swirling organ pipes, keyboards, music notations, bass and treble clefs, handbells, and the first notes of J. S. Bach's Fantasy in G Minor. Ms. Laurin was inspired to create a musical stained glass window on the organ, featuring an array of sounds to demonstrate the organ's tonal qualities.

​A reception follows the concert and you are all invited. You will still be able to be home in time to watch the Super Bowl!

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