EROI Festival 2009
Oct 29 - Nov 1
Mendelssohn and the
Contrapuntal Tradition
Eastman School of Music
Rochester, New York
The Eastman School of Music held the eighth annual Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) Festival: Mendelssohn and the Contrapuntal Tradition, October 29 — November 1, 2009. This year’s event, co-sponsored by the Organ Historical Society and the Westfield Center, paid tribute to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy on the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The program utilized Eastman’s new Craighead-Saunders organ, providing attendees with exciting opportunities to experience Mendelssohn’s complete organ works played on an instrument representing an aesthetic that would have been known to the composer.
- Schedule
- Registration
- Hotel Information
- Public Concerts and Events
- Sponsors
- Festival Registration closed Nov. 1
Thursday, October 29
Hyatt Regency
| 2:30 – 5:30 PM |
Registration |
| 5:30 – 6:30 PM |
Opening Remarks by Dean Douglas Lowry Wm. A. Little: Mendelssohn and the Organ |
| 6:30 – 8 PM |
Light Supper Reception |
Christ Church
| 8:30 PM | Reconstruction of Mendelssohn’s Leipzig Concert David Higgs, Hans Davidsson, William Porter |
Friday, October 30
Third Presbyterian Church
| 9 AM – Noon |
Keynote Lecture–R. Larry Todd: Mendelssohn and the Contrapuntal Tradition Christoph Wolff: The Bach Tradition Among the Mendelssohn Ancestry Russell Stinson: Observations on Mendelssohn’s Reception of Bach’s Organ Works Box Lunches Provided |
Christ Church
| 1:30 PM | Concert: Eastman Students |
| 3 – 3:45 PM |
Laurence Libin: The Jewish Background to Mendelssohn’s Organ Works |
| 4:30 – 6 PM |
Jacques van Oortmerssen: Lecture-Demonstration and Masterclass: Mendelssohn Performance Practice Issues, including Tempo, Registration, and Articulation |
Rochester Club Ballroom
| 6 – 8 PM |
Dinner Buffet |
Christ Church
| 8:30 PM | Concert: Delbert Disselhorst with Eastman Chorale (William Weinert, director) |
Saturday, October 31
Hyatt Regency
| 9 AM – Noon |
Celia Applegate: Mendelssohn as Mediator: Varieties of Musical Protestantism in Great Britain and Germany Nicholas Thistlethwaite: “He Ought to Have a Statue”–Mendelssohn, Gauntlett and the English Organ Reform Wm. A. Little: A Minor Mendelssohnian Mystery–The Curious Case of the Credo and the Nachspiel John Michael Cooper: Music History as Sermon: Style, Form, and Narrative in Mendelssohn’s “Dürer Cantata” Lunch Buffet |
Christ Church
| 1:30 PM | Concert: Hans Davidsson, David Higgs, William Porter |
| 3 – 5:30 PM |
Jacques van Oortmerssen: Lecture-Demonstration and
Masterclass (continued from Friday) Dinner On Your Own |
| 8:30 PM | Concert: Jacques van Oortmerssen with Christ Church Schola
Cantorum (Stephen Kennedy, director) |
Sunday, November 1
Christ Church
| 11 AM | Eucharist: with Mendelssohn Repertoire |
| 2 – 5:30 PM |
Choose one track: • Track A: Demonstrations of Rochester instruments (Italian Baroque Organ at the Memorial Art Gallery, Fritts & Co. opus 26 at Sacred Heart Cathedral, John Brombaugh opus 9 at St. Michael's Church, Mustel harmonium, Eastman School practice organs) • Track B: Presentation of ongoing organ research on key touch characteristics in mechanical action organs. Includes an indepth tour of the Craighead-Saunders Organ and a report about Casparini’s building methods. Dinner On Your Own |
| 8:30 PM | Candlelight Concert |
| 9 PM | Compline |
Registration Fees & Information
To register online with a credit card, click here. Or, download the registration form here to pay with a check and mail in your registration. Early registration discounts are available through August 15, 2009. For inquiries about the festival, please contact Annie Laver, EROI Festival coordinator: anne.laver@rochester.edu, (585) 274-1564.
Hotel Information
A block of rooms has been reserved at a conference rate of $109 per night for single/double until October 10, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Rochester, 125 East Main Street, Rochester, NY 14604 (about 5 blocks from Eastman and Christ Church). Reservations should be made through Hotel's Reservation Department by calling (585) 546-1234, 800-233-1234, or via the web link below. It is highly recommended that participants book hotel rooms early, given that October is a particularly busy time for area hotels. The hotel offers free shuttle service from the Greater Rochester International Airport and to and from the hotel and conference venues. Click here to make a reservation at the Hyatt Regency Rochester.
Public Concerts & Events
Individual tickets for all concerts will be available for purchase through the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office (108 East Avenue, 585-454-2100). After October 10, 2009, any unsold concert tickets reserved for festival participants will be available to the general public. Any unsold seats go on sale one hour before concert time at Christ Church.
2008 Sponsors
Westfield Center • Organ Historical Society • Christ Church • Third Presbyterian Church • Episcopal Diocese of Rochester • GOArt, Göteborg University, Sweden • Eastman School of Music • EROI Working Committee
About EROI
When the Eastman School of Music opened its doors in 1921, it housed the largest and most lavish organ collection in the nation, opulent facilities, and a stellar faculty, creating an expansive vision for organ art and education, and one of the most distinguished organ programs in the world. In keeping with this tradition of excellence, we have embarked the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI), a collection of new and historic organs of diverse styles and traditions unparalleled in North America. EROI’s initial phase has produced the installations of two historic instruments: an Italian Baroque organ in the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery, and the Craighead-Saunders Organ in Christ Church. Future goals are the renovation of the Eastman School’s historic E.M. Skinner organ, and the restoration and replacement of the School’s 14 practice organs, will complete the initial phase of this 10-year plan.
The Organ Historical Society is the leading American non-profit organization dedicated to documenting and preserving historic pipe organs and to promoting their public appreciation. Among its 4,000 members are music lovers, performers, organ builders, historians, and scholars from around the world. The OHS American Organ Archives is the world’s foremost repository of materials relating to the pipe organ. The Society publishes a quarterly journal, The Tracker, as well as scholarly books, facsimiles, monographs, and recordings, and it offers the world’s largest online catalog of pipe organ books, sheet music, and audio and video recordings. In addition to sponsoring symposia on various organ topics, the OHS holds annual conventions featuring performances on the distinctive pipe organs of a given region, and it publishes an annual Organ Atlas covering the history and documentation of these instruments. More information can be found at www.organsociety.org.
Westfield Center
The Westfield Center is a landmark organization with a mission of promoting dialog among keyboard performers, scholars, and instrument makers. It is an advocate on behalf of the organ, harpsichord, fortepiano, and clavichord; a publisher of keyboard-related materials; a presenter of workshops, symposia, concerts, and tours; and a national organization with an international reach. For more information: www.westfield.org.