Organist Virginia Vance

Davidson College’s Concert Series on Sunday afternoon will feature a program of music by great American composers Peter Schickele and Lou Harrison. Meanwhile, Virginia Vance, a Baroque music specialist and church organist from Rocky Mount, will play the second concert in the 2013-14 Organ at Davidson series on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

SCHICKELE AND HARRISON MUSIC AT DAVIDSON

Davidson college’s next Concert Series program this Sunday, Oct. 6, will highlight two of America’s great composers: Peter Schickele and Lou Harrison. The program will include three works from each composer, performed by members of the Davidson Music Department faculty and Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.

Harrison’s “Praises for the Beauty of Hummingbirds” will begin the performance, followed by Schickele’s “Dream Dances” and his “Music for an Evening” for piano four hands and string quartet. After a brief intermission, performers will retake the stage for Harrison’s “Varied Trio” for violin, piano and percussion, his “Songs in the Forest,” and Schickele’s “Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano.”

The program will begin at 3pm in Tyler-Tallman Hall of Sloan Music Center. Tickets are $5-$17. For reservations, contact the box office at 704-894-2135 from 10 am to 4 pm, or purchase online at davidson.edu/tickets. For more information, call 704-894-2848 or visit davidson.edu/music.

Schickele, whom most people recognize as the fictional composer PDQ Bach, is also a serious composer who wrote challenging repertoire. Harrison is one of the most under-appreciated contemporary American composers. He is known principally for chamber music, and his penchant for including atypical instruments into his works. That will occur in the Davidson performance as percussionist and Davidson College Symphony Orchestra director Tara Keith performs with rice bowls and baking sheets.

ORGAN AT DAVIDSON TUESDAY

Virginia Vance will be the second featured organist in the Organ at Davidson series next Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Davidson College Presbyterian Church. The program includes works by J.S. Bach, C.P. E. Bach, Haydn, William Boyce, Mendelssohn and Demarest.

Organ at Davidson programs begin at 7:30pm in the sanctuary of Davidson College Presbyterian Church in downtown Davidson. They are free with donations encouraged to expand the series. A meet- the-artist reception follows the recital. For the full 2013-2014 schedule, visit www.dcpc.org and click on Music. Guest recitalists receive an honorarium derived solely from donations.

Virginia Vance is organist at First Presbyterian Church in Rocky Mount; she also accompanies choral groups at NC State University and Meredith College. She was Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Studies at Peace College in Raleigh, NC, where she taught courses in music theory and organ, in addition to serving as College Organist. She also accompanied the Peace College Chamber Singers and the Peace College Choir. Ms. Vance was a Fulbright Scholar and studied with Professor Anton Heiller in Vienna, Austria. Her organ degrees are from Salem College and Yale University.

Future Organ at Davidson programs feature the American Guild of Organists program “Organ Plus” on Nov. 12, Aaron Goen of St. Peter’s in Charlotte, Jan. 14; Nicolas Haig of York Minster, England on Feb. 18; and the popular Bach Birthday Bash on March 11, with organist Jane Dimmock Cain and Bach’s Coffee Cantata.

Sisters Frances Blaker, conductor, and Barbara Blaker Krumdieck, Artistic Director, lead new Baroque Orchestra of NC. (Carrie Wagner photo)

The Baroque Orchestra of North Carolina, led by San Francisco-based early music specialist Frances Blaker, will perform its debut concert Friday, Aug. 12, at 8 p.m., in the Congregation House at Davidson College Presbyterian Church, 218 Concord Road.

The ensemble includes musicians from around the state, and they’ll be playing a program of orchestral music from the Baroque on period instruments.

The music includes selections from Telemann’s “Wasser Musik,” Vivaldi’s “Tempeste di Mare,” and Chaconnes and Marches by French baroque composers Lully and Rameau. Durham-based singer Erica Dunkle, will sing English songs with lute accompaniment, as well as a Bach aria for voice and recorder.

Ms. Blaker is a recorder virtuoso and conductor of the group, which includes musicians from all over the state. They’ll be playing on period instruments.

Davidson baroque cellist Barbara Blaker Krumdieck is the orchestra’s artistic director and her sister.

The Baroque Orchestra of North Carolina consists of baroque oboists, baroque flute, recorder, baroque strings, lute, harpsichord, baroque organ and voice.

This will be a rare opportunity for people in Davidson and surrounding areas to hear a 20 person baroque orchestra right around the corner.

Donations will be accepted at the door. Call 704-560-0101 for further information.