Upcoming Events

Organ Concerts

Upcoming Concerts

Concert in the MIT Chapel featuring organist Leonardo Ciampa; the MIT Gospel Choir; and mezzo-soprano Christina English

Includes the premiere performance of selections from Little Organ Book by Charles Shadle

Tuesday April 9, 2013 7:30pm - MIT Chapel

Past Concerts

World Premiere of Ciampa's Kresge Organ Symphony

Friday, February 1, 2013 8pm (pre-concert lecture, 7pm) - Kresge Auditorium

This program of all contemporary organ music includes the world-premiere of Leonardo Ciampa's KRESGE ORGAN SYMPHONY, a grand work incorporating Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim themes. Also on the program:

Charles Shadle Red Cloud (world-premiere)
Carson Cooman Two pieces for soprano & organ
1. Circe
2. Ostinato Mass
(with Jean Danton, soprano)
Andrea Amici Tre Preghiere
David Briggs Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen (world-premiere)
Geoffrey Dana Hicks Organ Prelude No. 1 (world-premiere)

Admission is FREE and open to the public

Pre-concert lecture at 7pm:

Please join MIT organ curator Mark Nelson at 7pm for a pre-concert lecture in Kresge. Mark will speak about the physics of the organ as well as the Kresge organ in particular, and he will answer any questions.

For more information, contact Christina English, MIT Religious Life, (617) 253-7707


Online Broadcast of Organ Concert 

Listen online to the free broadcast of Leonardo Ciampa's New Year's Day Organ Concert (link to page). Organist Leonardo Ciampa puts the MIT Chapel organ through its paces in a varied and colorful program. Five centuries are represented, everything from the fiery Praeludium in G, written in 1690 by Buxtehude, to “No Darkness At All”, written in 2004 by Harvard's Carson Cooman.  Ciampa also offers his latest in a series of folksong arrangements, “Wayfairing Stranger.” Born in 1971, Ciampa is one of the most well-thought-of musicians of his generation – an organist, pianist, and composer who is highly regarded in all three areas
 
Listen to last year's program (link to page).
 

About the organ in the MIT Chapel

An organ of great historic significance, the MIT Chapel Organ was built in 1955 by Walter Holtkamp, the most avant-garde organbuilder of his time. According to Holtkamp biographer John Ferguson, the organ "reveals Holtkamp, as much a radical in his field as Frank Lloyd Wright was in architecture."