Thomas Joyce, Trinity Episcopal Church’s new minister of keyboard music, will offer his debut recital in in a free performance at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the church in downtown Santa Barbara.
The music of Bach and Vivaldi will be featured. Joyce will not be replacing the late and irreplaceable David Gell, but will rather be carrying on with the vital mission of musical outreach that Gell so brilliantly began at Trinity.
Joyce was born in Cambridgeshire, England, but he received his higher education in the United States — with degrees from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Yale University Institute of Sacred Music and the University of Washington School of Music — and has spent most of his career here.
For this concert, Joyce will have the inestimable collaboration of the exquisite flautists, Suzanne Duffy and Jane Hahn. There is nothing like baroque music to put us in the mood for our higher aspirations, not to mention Christmas.
The program will consist of the Concerto in D-Major, RV 428, “Il Gardellino” by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), with Duffy on flute and Joyce on organ; Three Chorale Preludes on “Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland,” BWV 659-661, “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein,” BWV 734 and “Meine Seele erhebt den Herren,” BWV 733 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), played by Joyce on the organ; the Sonata in Eb-Major, BWV 1031 by Bach, performed by Hahn on flute and Joyce on piano; the Organ Concerto in d-minor, BWV 596 by Bach (arrangement of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins; Opus 3, No.11, RV565), played by Joyce on organ; and the Trio Sonata in G-Major, BWV 1039 by Bach, performed by Duffy and Hahn on flutes and Joyce on piano.
Trinity Episcopal Church is at 1500 State St. Admission, as always, is free, although, as always, any donation will be welcomed and put to the best possible use.
— 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.