The Santa Barbara Music Club will open its 2018-19 season of free concerts on a stately — one might even say magisterial —note with a recital by the noted organist and composer, Roger Nyquist, at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13.
Installing an organ of sufficient grandeur in the Central Library’s Faulkner Gallery would prove problematic, so this concert will be held in the club’s alternate venue, First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu St., where a magnificent Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ is already in place.
Nyquist, born in Rockford, Ill., earned his bachelor of music degree (cum laude) from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., his masters from Syracuse University, and his doctorate at Indiana University.
He has led a spectacularly successful three-pronged career as a popular concert organist, revered teacher, and award-winning composer.
In Saturday’s concert Nyquist will play works by Johann Sebastian Bach, John Bull, Louis Claude Daquin, Nord Johnson, Camille Saint-Saëns, Paul Manz, Oliver Messiaen, Henri Mulet, Antonio Vivaldi and John Weaver, as well as some of his own compositions.
The Music Club has this to say about the United Methodist’s magnificent instrument:
“The pipe organ at FUMC is considered a premiere instrument in the city of Santa Barbara. A three-manual Artcraft pipe organ was installed during construction of the present sanctuary in 1927; it remained in service up until 1961, when the church purchased a three-manual Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ of 31 ranks.
“In 1993, a 61-pipe Trompette-en-chamade was added as a memorial gift, installed above the altar by the Schantz Organ Company of Orville, Ohio. In 1999, the same firm installed a new three-manual console, featuring multiple memory systems and capture action.
“Most recently, in 2003, Schantz brought the organ to gorgeous tonal completion with the addition of 20 new ranks of pipes, as well as three digital ranks of 32′ pitch stops.
“The added registers include an entirely new Great division mounted on slider chests; unenclosed diapason pipework from the new Great is now framed in classical pipe façades on both sides of the chancel.
“The instrument stands today at 52 ranks, totaling over 2,500 pipes, plus three digital pedal stops.”
For more about this concert, other events, or about the Santa Barbara Music Club in general, visit https://sbmusicclub.org/.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.