Performances of Dan Locklair's "In Mystery and Wonder: The Casavant
Diptych" Around the World on November 13 and 14 - New Work Celebrates
125 Years of Canadian Organ Builders Casavant Freres
During the weekend of November 13-14, 2004, organists from around the
world - including Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia, Zimbabwe, Australia, Japan
and many other countries, and from California to Texas to New York - who
play Casavant organs will be performing North Carolina-based composer
Dan Locklair's "In Mystery and Wonder: The Casavant Diptych". Several
hundred organists will participate in the event.
The composer will be attending the November 14 performance by Dr. Joby
Bell at the First Baptist Church in Hickory, North Carolina. Dr. Bell,
Visiting Professor of Music at Appalachian State University, will be
presenting the new work on one of Casavant's newest organ installations.
"In Mystery and Wonder: The Casavant Diptych" and the Casavant celebration,
including a performance of the work, will be featured this week on
American Public Radio's Pipedreams radio show. Their website is at
http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/.
Casavant president Andre Gremillet said, "As we considered an appropriate
way to celebrate the occasion of our 125th anniversary, we wanted not
only to honor Claver and Samuel Casavant, founders of Casavant Freres,
but also to recognize the contribution of composers and organists, for
without them the instruments would have no meaning or purpose. What
better way to recognize the contribution of our founders and all musicians
who make music on our instruments than to commission a new work for
organ?"
"Finding in Dan Locklair a composer whose enthusiasm for this commission
matched our desire to have a work that would mark the importance of this
anniversary with something of lasting significance has been most rewarding.
It is our hope that those who give form to this music through performance
will reflect upon the contribution of the artisans who, with their talent
and through their hands, shaped the raw materials of wood and metal into
music instruments."
The piece was composed in two movements to make it accessible to the
widest range of organists possible. The first movement was written to
be technically modest, with the second movement being more technically
demanding.
Internationally recognized American composer Dan Locklair, a native of
Charlotte, NC, is Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake
Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. His compositional output,
influenced by a wide variety of traditions, ranging from Medieval to
modern music, includes symphonic works, a ballet, an opera, and numerous
solo, chamber, vocal, organ and choral compositions. His music has been
performed throughout Europe and North America by many major orchestras,
choral groups, chamber ensembles and soloists. Several of these works
have received major awards, including the 1989 Barlow International
Competition Award for "changing perceptions & Epitaph" and the 1996
American Guild of Organists Composer of the Year Award. Among his other
honors are consecutive ASCAP Awards since 1981 and a Kennedy Center
Friedheim Award.
For more information about composer Dan Locklair, including a bio, list
of works, discography and much more, please visit http://www.locklair.com.
He is represented by Jeffrey James Arts Consulting - 516-797-9166 - phone
and fax, to whom inquiries about his music can be directed.
Referred to by Smithsonian magazine (July, 1997) as "one of the oldest
and most venerable pipe organ makers in North America," Casavant Freres
traces its roots to two brothers, Claver and Samuel Casavant, sons of
Joseph Casavant, described in the most recent edition of the Encyclopedia
of Music in Canada as the "first Canadian-born organ builder of note."
After extensive travel in Europe, these brothers returned to their native
St. Hyacinthe in 1879 and established themselves as Casavant Freres on
the site where the present workshops stand. Visit them online at
www.casavant.ca.
Jeffrey James Arts Consulting
Tel/Fax: 516-797-9166
Website: http://www.jamesarts.com
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