To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its sanctuary renovation and pipe organ expansion, First Presbyterian Church will host a concert Thursday featuring world-renowned organist Stephen Tharp.
“Right now, he is the most sought-after concert organist in the United States and certainly one of the most sought-after in Europe, so we were lucky he had some time during the last two weeks of September and we were able to get him here,” said Ray Smithee, the church’s director of music and organist. “He is the top guy in the organ world right now. It’s exciting to have someone at his level come perform.”
The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the church. It’s free and open to the public.
“It’s the perfect opportunity for people to hear a high-class performer right in their hometown,” Smithee said.
Tharp, a Chicago native, began studying piano at age 6 and organ at age 8.
“My parents took me to church as a kid, and I found the organ fascinating,” he said.
Many boys are amazed by big machinery that makes sounds, such as trucks or airplanes; it was the organ that caught Tharp’s interest. He began learning to play piano with the ambition to begin studying the organ.
“Once I started studying, it just stuck,” Tharp said. “I’ve kept the two going ever since.”
Tharp earned his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, and his Master of Music degree from Northwestern University in Chicago.
In 1995, he moved to New York City to become the organist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
In April 2008, he was named the official organist for the New York visit of Pope Benedict XVI. He played for three major events — one at St. Joseph’s Church in Manhattan, one at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and a mass service at Yankee Stadium.
During the service at Yankee Stadium, Tharp performed outside and played prelude music for about three hours as those attending entered the ballpark, which held more than 50,000 people. The organ music he performed that day was all from memory without the use of scores — which Tharp is even known to do at many of his concerts.
The events were all broadcast live worldwide. Other than the papal visit, Tharp’s playing has also been heard on both English and Irish national television, on Radio Prague, orgelnieuws.nl in the Netherlands and in the U.S. on American Public Media’s Pipedreams. In both 2005 and 2011, Pipedreams broadcast entire programs dedicated exclusively to his career, making him one of the few organists in the world so honored.
Tharp’s work also includes teaching master classes at Yale University; Westminster Choir College; the Cleveland Institute of Music; Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota; the Hochschulen für Musik in Stuttgart, Trossingen and Bochum, all in Germany; and for chapters of the American Guild of Organists. He has also adjudicated for competitions at the Juilliard School and Northwestern University.
Tharp, his wife and their 4-year son continue to reside in New York, where he serves as the artist-in-residence at St. James Church. There he accompanies the choir during Sunday morning service. He also travels and performs at 20 to 40 different venues in the United States and Europe each year.
Tharp most recently completed his 47th concert tour outside the States. He traveled and performed in Germany, Holland and Rome. He has performed in more than 1,400 concerts worldwide.
“Traveling takes a lot of resilience, and you have to be very flexible with your schedule,” he said.
Most musicians travel with their instruments, but an added complication for a touring organist is that the instrument is located at the venue, and each organ is different.
“You have to be able to adapt,” said Tharp.
Tharp said it can be a challenge to present each concert as if he has always been performing on each pipe organ.
“You don’t meet two people who are the same; they might have similar personalities but they are not exactly the same. It’s like that with organs. It’s a very different experience every place you go,” he said. “It’s very challenging but very inspiring and fun to do that.”
Tharp has built one of the most well-respected international careers in the world, earning him the reputation as the most traveled concert organist of his generation. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World and received the 2011 International Performer of the Year Award from the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists. In 2015, he was given the Paul Creston Award, which recognizes artistic excellence by a significant figure in church music and the performing arts.
He has performed at locations including Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney, Moscow and different cities in Germany, which is also the country where he met his wife.
This will be Tharp’s first time to perform in Mississippi.
The program for the evening, which will last about an hour, will include classical organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn and George Baker. It will also include several of his own transcriptions for the organ of piano and orchestral works by George Frideric Handel, Paul Dukas, Johannes Brahms and Igor Stravinsky.
“I want to show as much variety in the organ as possible,” Tharp said.
Smithee said that the organ will be brought out of the pit, which will allow the audience to see what all goes into playing it.
“There’s somewhat of a physical component to playing the organ,” he said. “People may think maybe you play the keys with your hands and the pedals with your feet. There’s more to it with the organ, because you have to make registration changes, which can be done by pushing preset buttons either with the fingers or with the feet depending on what’s free and available at any one moment.
“So it’ll be a good opportunity to see what all goes into playing this instrument.”
• Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7233 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
