by David Flint
Parishioners of the Immaculate Conception Church in New Lebanon celebrated the installation of their new pipe organ last year with a concert dubbed “Sounds of Spring.” With spring busting out again in New Lebanon, what better way to welcome it than with a second annual “Sounds of Spring” concert. On May 5 the Church was also participating in a global event. It being the 850th anniversary of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, there were 850 organ concerts around the world celebrating the occasion.
Returning from last year’s performance in New Lebanon were Amy Renak, Director of Music at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, MA, Jeff Hunt, organist at St. Mark’s Church in Pittsfield and Music Director of the Hilltown Choral Society in Worthington, MA, and Keith Dezieck, Choir Director and organist at Immaculate Conception. They were joined this year by Charles W. Marshall, Minister of Music at First Baptist Church in Agawam, MA, and piano instructor at the Berkshire Music School in Pittsfield.
Renak started off with a rousing rendition of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Marshall followed with the beautiful hymn “As the Deer” by Martin Nystrom and “Rejoice Rejoice” by Telemann. Jeff Hunt ditched the program and played “My Old Kentucky Home” in honor of that very spring event, the Kentucky Derby. He then played a beautiful piece by the Polish composer Casimir Garbusinski. Renak continued with a mournful ballad by Edvard Grieg and a jazzy piece by Frederick William Faber. Dezieck played “Breathe on me Breath of God” and then “Arietta” by Darwin Wolford. He then took up the trumpet and joined with Renak on the organ for a series of pieces by various composers including Henry Purcell and Georg Philipp Telemann. Marshall closed with Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”