Music, Gettysburg

This week's virtual concert from Music, Gettysburg! is a tribute to the late Loran Fevens. For over a quarter of a century, his program, "The Music Box" was a favorite Sunday tradition for many of us who listen to WITF. One of his own traditions (continued, I believe, from his predecessor) was presenting Bach's Mass in B Minor on the first Sunday of May every year. Loran died last December in Nova Scotia, but the tradtion continues here, with the last movement, recorded by th...e Schola Cantorum and the Music, Gettysburg! Festival Orchestra in the seminary chapel. "Dona Nobis Pacem" is fitting for our times -- a plaintive, urgent, confident prayer for peace for "us." And since the prayer is addressed to the one who "takes away the sin of the world," us includes not simply Christians, but all humanity and not only humanity but all of creation. Enjoy, and pray! https://youtu.be/lDkIOhPkIrc See more

This week's virtual concert from Music, Gettysburg! is the Athena Brass Band performing at the Gettysburg Brass Band Festival in 2015. They'll be back for this year's Festival, at the Seminary's Schmucker Grove on Saturday, June 12. Save the date, and dust off your lawn chairs! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LtzUGeVaus

This week's virtual concert is from the Gettysburg Children's Choir. Normally at about this time, we'd be able to present the Choir's final concert of their season. So here they are in performance at the chapel, in a recent Christmas Offering, singing a piece in memory of our dear friend Jane Jones, their founding manager. We hope to hear them in person again very soon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW0Iox-Qksg

This week's virtual concert from Music, Gettysburg! continues our Easter celebration. Here's our friend Michael Krentz playing his own chorale prelude on Luther's Easter hymn, "Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands." We miss you, and can hardly wait to power up the mighty Andover in the chapel again! Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQj20w4qbGI

This week's virtual concert from Music, Gettysburg! is a two-fer. In honor of Holy Week and Easter, we're presenting two movements from Bach's Mass in B Minor -- "Crucifixus" and "Et Resurrexit." The performances are by the Schola Cantorum of Gettysburg and the Music, Gettysburg! Festival Orchestra, recorded live in the chapel several years ago. Here are the links to the YouTube Videos: Crucifixus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caKNC9EMLSw Et Resurrexit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JvOrAKCamE&t=10s

This week's Music, Gettysburg! virtual concert is a two-fer! Because Oct. 25, 2020 is Reformation Sunday, here's the Schola Cantorum of Gettysburg performing an arrangement of "A Mighty Fortress" by its own founder and director, Stephen P. Folkemer: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=yz7D3o4a6mY Today we're also posting a performance celebrating All Saints Sunday. We aren't waiting for next Sunday because then we'll have a special virtual performance by the Buzz Jones Jazz Quintet -- a birthday celebration for Hoagy Carmichael.

This week's second virtual concert, in observance of All Saints Day, is from the Lux Chorale, a group of young musicians who have performed for us a couple of times (and we hope to have back again!). Here they're singing a setting of Psalm 119:1, "Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord" by Charles Villiers Stanford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-pUu6RoWQ Check our their website (http://www.choirlux.com/) for lots more!

This week's virtual concert comes from one of Music, Gettysburg!'s most amazing concerts. We were fortunate enough to fill an empty date on the farewell tour of Anonymous 4, the astounding and barrier-breaking female a capella group. Here's a recorded version of one of the pieces they did in the chapel: https://www.youtube.com/watch

This week, a very special virtual concert. On Oct. 11, 2020, in celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday, we had scheduled a performance arranged by our friend, the Baltimore composer Hollis Thoms. It would have included his arrangements of several songs by Beethoven, as well as new pieces inspired by him, including Hollis's own piano sonata. Then covid hit, and took away our performance space. But Hollis has generously offered videos of the three songs, and an audio of his ...sonata. The videos are available on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/playlist The audio is on Hollis's own webpage (http://www.hollisthoms.com/Musical-Examples.html ). Take a moment to enjoy them at your leisure -- they're stunning works, performed by talented artists, including several of Hollis's relatives and friends. While you're at our YouTube channel, please subscribe to it -- it'll make it easier for you to get future virtual concerts, and will get us some perks!

This week's virtual concert is by the great pianist Brian Ganz, based in Baltimore and busy at the moment honoring the memory of Leon Fleischer. He's played with the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, and solo with Music, Gettysburg! He's a wonderful interpreter of Chopin, as you can tell from this performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFLXnwKMnbg

This week's video performance is from one of our favorite groups, and from one of our concerts. Here's the Gettysburg Children's Choir singing at their last concert of the 2018-2019 season, from a very familiar location. If you were ever wondering what it was like to sit in the back row of a choir singing at the Seminary Chapel ... https://www.youtube.com/watch

Every week we don't present a virtual concert, we'll post a video from one of our favorite performers. We'll do that at 4 PM on Sunday, just so you don't get out of the habit of enjoying Music, Gettysburg! at our most common concert time. This week's performers -- the Air Force Singing Sergeants, coming to us from their homes with an Irish prayer. We say Amen to it!! https://www.youtube.com/watch

It's been 6 months since St. Patrick's Day, 2020, and there's another coming up in 6 months. So, to celebrate "St. Patrick's Day and a Half" we presenting a concert by Cormorant's Fancy, the great local Celtic band. Rained out in August, it'll be outside in Schmucker Grove (at the corner of Springs Avenue and Seminary Ridge) at 5 PM on Sunday, Sept. 13. This hour long concert will feature toe-tapping dances and heart-rending ballads. Grab a mask and a lawn chair or blanket, and come out for a wonderful time. The United Lutheran Seminary buildings are still not available for public use, so the concert is weather-dependent.

This week's virtual concert is a triple treat: (1) Felix Hell; (2) at the seminary organ; (3) explaining a concert he played there a couple of years ago. Here's his take on Bach's Goldberg Variations, and you get to look over his shoulder while he's playing from it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaJvsCe1-nk

Our first virtual concert is live! And it's S'wonderful!! The Buzz Jones Quintet (plus two stellar singers and a celebrity narrator) have recorded four concerts from the American Songbook. We'll be releasing each of these for the birthday month of the composer. The first is up now, and it's a dandy -- George Gershwin, live from Schmucker Grove! Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9MkvqCoeWA on our new YouTube channel. While you're there, please subscribe to that channel --... we'll be posting a bunch of special performances over the course of the next few months. And in case you miss it at the end of the concert, if you'd like to support Music, Gettysburg!'s mission to present the finest in live musical performances, free of charge, to audiences in South Central Pennsylvania, go to our website to make a donation. See you in Schmucker Grove (weather permitting) on Sun., Sept. 13 for Cormorant's Fancy live. And watch our channel and this space for another birthday celebration in October -- honoring Beethoven on his 250th!

This week's virtual concert is coming to you a bit early, and for a special reason. The performers are the Atlantic Brass Band, which for the past several years we've sponsored as a part of the Gettysburg Brass Band Festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lZHRvMT998 There's a good reason for that -- the Atlantic Brass (back before this video, when they were performing in the same space), like the other bands and many other performers, played in the performance platform in ...Schmucker Grove. Now, however, the frame and canopy for that platform have deteriorated and are no longer useable. With the permission of ULS, we've decided to replace the platform with a permanent structure (see the lovely attached drawing). Because a number of generous contributions, we've already raised well over $50,000.00 and are now collecting bids and plan to break ground soon. Can you help us in raising the next $20,000.00 needed to complete the project? Go to this link and choose the Schmucker Grove Performance Pavilion option: https://www.musicgettysburg.org/support-us

This week's virtual concert -- Brad and Ken Kolodner with with Rachel Eddy and Alex Lacquement, they've been with us three times, we think! Join us in person on Sun. August 23 in Schmucker Grove for Cormorant's Fancy!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXGOJuj5YGk