FREE Organ Concert featuring Stefan Donner

Join us for a complimentary lunchtime organ concert featuring Stefan Donner!

Stefan Donner, organ
Stefan Donner has earned degrees from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (highest honors) where he studied organ, piano and conducting. He also received his Master's degree in organ performance from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In addition to his studies, Stefan has also participated in master classes with Jacques van Oortmerssen, Edorado Bellotti, Joris Verdin and Olivier Latry. He has notably received a 2014-15 Fulbright Scholarship to study organ and harpsichord at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY (USA). Stefan is the recipient of various awards, including first prize in the 2010 Franz-Schmidt-Organ Competition (Austria), and third prize in the 2011 Dublin International Organ Competition.

Besides various radio and television recordings, Stefan has recorded CDs performing on the Dacci organ of St. Salvator Vienna and on the Buckow organ from the musical instruments collection of the Technical Museum Vienna. These albums notably document his artistic proficiency as a concert organist.

Stefan has performed extensively all over Europe, and in farther countries including Turkey, Israel, the USA, and Australia. As a soloist, he is regularly invited to perform in
prestigious organ festivals; previous engagements include the Berliner Orgelpower 2012, the 2016 Terra Sancta Organ Festival, the 2017 Kremnica Castle Organ Festival and the 2017 Tallinn Organ Festival. In 2017 he was invited to lecture on J. S. Bach’s Organ- Triosonatas at the Władysław Żeleński’s Secondary School of Music in Krakow, Poland.

Program
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 538 ("Dorian"): Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Four Sketches for the pedal piano, op. 58: Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
1. Nicht schnell und sehr markiert
2. Nicht schnell und sehr markiert
3. Lebhaft
4. Allegretto

Sonata Nr. 4 in A Minor, op. 98  Rheinberger
1. Tempo moderato
2. Intermezzo
3. Fuga cromatica. Tempo moderato

About The Worcester Organ
The Hook Organ, installed in 1864, dominates the Great Hall. American organ builders Elias and George Hook, brothers from Boston, constructed the 52-stop, 3,504-pipe instrument, which is often referred to as the "Worcester Organ." Today, the Hook organ is the oldest unaltered four-keyboard pipe organ in the Western Hemisphere located at its installation site.

Restored in 1982, the Hook Organ since then has become one of the most popular and respected organs in the United States. It has been featured numerous times on National Public Radio, performed in several recordings, and has been featured on television and in a major motion picture, as well as in a music video starring Michael Crawford, the original "Phantom of the Opera."

See the specifications of the Hook Organ
Read more about the Hook Organ at HookOrgan.org