Pipes at One

Trinity’s first free midday offerings were pipe organ concerts, and on Tuesdays every fall and spring, the church returns to its roots — with music that is anything but old-fashioned. Played by Trinity’s own acclaimed musicians Avi Stein and Alcée Chriss III, as well as celebrated guest soloists from around the globe, St. Paul’s beautiful pipe organ will offer the kind of eclectic repertoire it was built for. “We are always asking, how can you present this ancient instrument in fresh ways?” says Melissa Baker, Trinity’s director of artistic planning. This season’s lineup more than answers that question.

October 1, 1pm – 2 pm

Dr. Kristina Ziema Rizzotto

This prolific and sought-after organist, composer, and pianist is known for the sacred and secular works she has written and performed around the globe. The top “20 Under 30” organist (The Diapason magazine) offers a taste of her broad range on a YouTube channel that features 350-plus organ, piano, and choral recordings that have been viewed more than two million times.

October 8, 1pm – 2 pm

Jennifer McPherson Mulhern

Mulhern, music director at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has earned acclaim for her interpretations of early music, including as a prize winner in the Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Organ Competition held in Amsterdam in 2012. She holds degrees from the College of the Holy Cross and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

October 15, 1pm – 2 pm

Gail Archer

A professor at Barnard College and Columbia University and the founder of Musforum, an international network for women organists, Archer specializes in a repertoire that spans the 16th to 20th centuries. She is one of the first American women to play Olivier Messiaen’s complete works — The New York Times wrote that Archer mixes a “compelling authority” and “bracing physicality” with “a sense of vulnerability and awe.”

October 22, 1pm – 2 pm

Nicole Keller

Known for bringing a freshness to pieces old and new — especially Bach and such 20th-century American composers as Florence Price and Calvin Hampton — Keller is adding Trinity to an impressive list of performance venues across the globe, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Cathédrale Notre-Dame, and the Kazakh National University for the Arts. The assistant professor of music at the University of Michigan is also in demand as an instructor and guest lecturer, most recently at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Yale University.

October 29, 1pm – 2 pm

Clara Gerdes Bartz

This young virtuoso, who grew up in North Carolina and recently graduated from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where she studied with renowned professor Martin Jean, has already established herself as a performer of prodigious technique and control. She received the Baker Prize in Organ Performance (2020) and the Julia Sherman Award for Excellence in Organ Playing (2021) and is an adjunct instructor of organ at Rider University’s Westminster Choir College.

Doors open 30 minutes before the event start time. Please be advised that seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration is highly recommended. 

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