by David Flint
Parishioners of Immaculate Conception Church in New Lebanon received their new organ last summer, but this past Sunday they and friends in the community got a chance to hear what it could really do.
The organ is a digital instrument with the quality of sound of a pipe organ, built in the 1970’s by the Allen Organ Company in Macungie, PA. Originally it graced St. Jude’s Church in Wynantskill. Later it became the possession of one of the organists in this concert, Susan DiFiore. Thanks to Susan and donations from the Immaculate Conception Choir and from the family of deceased Choir member Tom McGinn, the parish was able to acquire and install the Allen organ when their aging Hammond began to give up the ghost last year. The Choir agreed that the quality of this organ is far superior to any that the Church has ever owned.
The organ concert – Sounds of Spring – featured five first rate organists and two magnificent singers playing the music of J.S. Bach, Couperin, Brahms, Dunstable, Martin Luther and others. For the finale, Actor-Singer Dyann Arduini and Singer-Music Educator Ramsey Kurdi sang selections from Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, accompanied by Jeff Hunt, organist at St. Mark’s Church in Pittsfield and former music coordinator at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge.
Susan DiFiore, who is also an accomplished artist on the Celtic harp, led off the concert with the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” Anita Stuart, a graduate of Boston University’s School of Fine Arts with a degree in organ performance, followed with a selection by Dunstable, Couperin, Dandri, Brahms and J.S. Bach and then led singing of the beautiful hymn, “My Shepherd, You Supply My Need” by Isaac Watts. The parish’s house organist, Keith Dezieck, a graduate of the Berkshire College of Music, played pieces by Franklin Ritter and J.S. Bach. Amy Renak, Director of Music at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pittsfield and Instructor at Berkshire Community College, played a Bach hymn arranged by J.F. Porter and led the singing of Luther’s powerful “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” At the end she played a jazzed up version which is the way Luther originally had it – “with almost a barroom feel, which is where a lot of hymns came from,” – before Bach changed it to make it more singable and easier to harmonize.
Pastor John Close thanked the performers for an outstanding performance and “for showing us what this wonderful instrument can do.” He noted that he sort of feels like he is being chased by this organ as his first assignment to a parish as a seminarian was to St. Jude’s in Wynantskill. Rev. Close then invited all to meet with the performers at a reception in the Church Hall.
