The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Rising star Isabelle Demers opens the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Overture Concert Organ season this coming Tuesday. | October 2, 2015
By Jacob Stockinger
The acclaimed Canadian organist Isabelle Demers (below) will open the 11th Overture Concert Organ series for the Madison Symphony Orchestra with an unusual recital this coming Tuesday night, Oct. 6.
The concert, which includes her own transcriptions of orchestral works, is at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State Street.
In addition to performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev, Henry Martin, Max Reger, George Thalben-Ball and Louis Vierne, Demers in her Madison debut will also perform sections of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous orchestral work Scheherazade, which she has transcribed for the organ.
For the specific works on the program, go to: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/demers
Demers (below), who was recently appointed Professor of Organ and head of the Organ Department at Baylor University, has established herself as one of North America’s most virtuosic organists, and is also renowned worldwide as a brilliant performer who consistently enraptures audiences.
She has released recordings including works by Max Reger and Rachel Laurin, which have been praised as “profound and searching” and “superbly produced.” (You can hear Isabelle Demers perform a dramatic work by Rachel Laurin in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
General admission for the concert is $20 and tickets can be purchased at www.madisonsymphony.org/demers, the Overture Box Office or (608) 258-4141.
Student rush tickets are $10 day of show with a valid student ID (see http://www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush.
This performance is sponsored by the Skofronick Family Charitable Trust. Support for all Overture Concert Organ programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund. With a gift from Pleasant T. Rowland, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) commissioned the Klais custom-built Overture Concert Organ (below), which is the stunning backdrop of all MSO concerts.
To see the Overture Concert Organ series of concerts for 2015-16 or to subscribe at a 25 percent savings, visit: www.madisonsymphony.org/organseason15-16 or call (608) 257-3734.
Tags: American Guild of Organists, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Baylor University, Classical music, concert organ, concerto, George Thalben-Ball, Henry Martin, Isabelle Demers, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Klais Orgelbau, Louis Vierne, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Max Reger, Music, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Orchestra, Overture Center, Rachel Laurin, Scheherazade, Sergei Prokofiev, transcription, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, YouTube
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What an impressive “calling card” that YouTube is. She’s a huge talent. It looks like she could have given old Bach himself a run for the money in a contest.
In addition to being a star performer, she’s also a star academic. From her own web site:
“She began piano and organ study at age eleven at the Montréal Conservatory of Music. After graduation in 2003 she studied on scholarship for a year in Paris at the École Normale de Paris-Alfred Cortot. She received her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School in New York City, where she studied with Paul Jacobs. Her dissertation – an analysis of Bach’s St. John Passion – was awarded the Richard French Prize for best dissertation at commencement.”
Impressive! See http://isabelledemers.org/bio/
Comment by foodloversofchiangmai — October 2, 2015 @ 6:08 am