— by Anastasia Maritsas ’25E, Eastman Communications ALP Intern
The Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) Festival returns to Rochester, NY, from Sunday, November 10 to Wednesday, November 13. Co-sponsored by the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies at Cornell University, EROI will host a multitude of interdisciplinary events, including organ demonstrations across Rochester, paper presentations, and guest speakers on topics such as performance, music theory, organ building, and the history of the organ. The four-day festival titled The Roaring 20s: Hindsight is 20/24 will be a comprehensive look into organ reform in the 1920s, which connects to histories and repertoire across centuries, proving a rich topic for exploration and performance.
Previously a bi-annual festival, this is the first EROI festival since the Covid pandemic. It will attract attendees nationally and internationally. The full festival requires registration, but concerts––which take place in the afternoons and evenings––are open to the public. (See end of article for schedule of concerts.)
Why is the 1920s so significant to the history of the organ? This decade marked the beginning of the organ reform movement in Europe, which revived musical styles and repertoire from the Baroque and Renaissance periods. In the United States, the decade saw the peak of the American symphonic organ, which could imitate orchestral instruments and generate powerful sounds. In cities without a big civic orchestra, such organs were a gateway to hear the latest orchestral music as well as classics. However, production was short-lived. When the Great Depression hit, it was too expensive to construct and upkeep the elaborate organs, bringing the movement to a halt. Due to the many organ developments in the 1920s, the decade offers a fertile ground for exploration that fans out into other periods, allowing the EROI festival to capitalize on the ‘20s decade across several centuries.
“The ‘20s of every century is always an interesting decade,” says EROI Festival organizer Mitchell Miller, a current doctoral organ student at Eastman. “In the case of the 1920s, there was the Depression, and in the 2020s, it’s Covid.”
Rochester is an ideal spot for an organ festival. Rochester attracted major organ players in the earlier 1900s due to Eastman-Kodak founder George Eastman’s deep passion for organ music. Because of this, Rochester is home to an impressive number of historical organs, with many restored to their original playing condition. “The collection of instruments here is second to none in the US,” says Miller. Additionally, George Eastman established the Eastman School of Music as one of the best places for organ study. The Eastman School has since played a major role in the upkeep and care of organs in the Rochester area: its organ department has collaborated with institutions across the city to maintain and even build organs in exchange for student access to historical instruments.
Rochester’s magnificent organs will be a playground for local and guest organists during the EROI festival. Organs include the bright and present Craighead-Saunders organ, an exact replica of a Lithuanian organ from 1776 that Bach would have preferred in his time, which lines the back of Christ Church’s sanctuary on East Avenue, along with its Hook and Hastings organ, an American-made symphonic organ with a deep, dark sound. Other concerts will take place on the Memorial Art Gallery’s fully restored Italian Baroque organ, the only full-sized antique Italian organ in North America. A 1927 Skinner organ—another American symphonic organ—located at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, will also be performed.
Performers include Annette Richards and David Yearsley from Cornell University, Caroline Robinson ’16E (MM), ’20E (DMA) and Nicole Keller ’99E (MM) from the University of Michigan, and David Baskeyfield ’08E (MM), ’14E (DMA) from East Carolina University, along with Eastman professors Edoardo Bellotti, David Higgs, and Nathan Laube, and former professor William Porter.
The keynote speaker of the festival will be Christopher Anderson, associate professor of sacred music at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who will be presenting on organ reform in Europe on Monday. Following Anderson will be a presentation on organ reform in Scandinavia by Paul Peeters from the University of Göteborg, Sweden, providing a different global perspective of the reform. Shifting the perspective to organ builders, Jonathan Ortloff will present on organ builders up to Earnest Skinner, whose organs can be found in churches and halls around Rochester. Skinner was one of the first organ builders to create organ stops that could emulate instruments like the flute and cello. Tuesday will consist of a three-part presentation at Christ Church on the theologian, organologist (organ builder), and music theorist Christhard Mahrenholz and his role in writing on and re-recognizing organs from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Additionally, research papers will be given by Baskeyfield and Keller, along with Russell Weismann and Martin Herchenröder. An Eastman alum, Baskeyfield is a British organist based in North Carolina who will be presenting his paper on French organists Marcel Dupré, Joseph Bonet, and Louis Vierne who toured the United States in 1920. Continuing with the theme of European organists in the states, Weismann will present his paper on German organ builder Rudolf von Beckerath, his internship with Victor Gonzalez, and the first organs he built in the US. Keller will present her paper on the 1927 Frieze Memorial organ in Hill Auditorium and its various updates, which saw changes in organ reform in real time. Finally, musicologist, organist, composer, and University of Siegen professor Herchenröder will present his paper on Olivier Messiaen and the neo-classical organ.
“These people who are coming to speak are really the leaders in their fields. It’s an embarrassment of riches to have them all here at the same time,” says Miller. Registration for the 2024 EROI Festival will be available until the conference begins on November 10th.
Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) Festival “The Roaring 20s: Hindsight is 20/24”
November 10-13, 2024
Various Locations
Click to register
EROI Festival Organ Concerts
Free unless otherwise noted
Sunday, November 10 at 8:30 p.m. | Christ Church
Pre-Compline “Candlelight Concert” on the Craighead-Saunders Organ (2008 GOArt & Munetaka Yakota, after 1776 A.G. Casparini)
Featuring Annette Richards (Cornell University) and David Yearsley (Cornell University)
The Office of Compline performed by the Christ Church Schola Cantorum follows at 9 p.m.
Monday, November 11 at 2 p.m. | Memorial Art Gallery | Free with Gallery Admission
Concert on the Italian Baroque Organ (Anon. 18th-century): Improvisation and organ and harpsichord works by Frescobaldi and Scheidt
Featuring William Porter (Eastman School of Music) and Edoardo Bellotti (Eastman School of Music)
Monday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m. | St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Organ Concert on 1927 Skinner Organ Co., Op. 655: American organ music of the early 20th-century, music of touring French virtuosi in the 1920s including Joseph Bonnet and Marcel Dupré
Featuring David Higgs (Eastman School of Music), Nathan Laube (Eastman School of Music), Nicole Keller (University of Michigan), and David Baskeyfield (East Carolina University)
Tuesday, November 12 at 12 p.m. | Christ Church
Tuesday Pipes Concert Series: Music of Vincent Lübeck, Hugo Distler, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Max Reger
Featuring students of the Eastman School of Music.
Tuesday, November 12 at 8 p.m. | Christ Church
Closing Organ Concert on the Craighead-Saunders Organ (2008 GOArt & Munetaka Yokota, after 1776 A.G. Casparini) and Hook & Hastings Organ (1863 & 1893): Old and new works at the locus of aesthetic changes in organ composition and performances in the 1920s and 1930s, with music by Scheidt, Buxtehude, Bach, Karg- Elert, Distler, and Hindemith
Featuring Caroline Robinson (University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI), Nicole Keller (University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, MI), Edoardo Bellotti (Eastman School of Music – Rochester, NY), David Higgs (Eastman School of Music – Rochester, NY), and Nathan Laube (Eastman School of Music – Rochester, NY)