Organ concerts

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to engage an audience.  There's a tape of one of my performances in the last couple of years where my aunt was taking care of the recording device.  She kindly informed the person sitting next to her that I have always been a showoff, right in the middle of a soft passage.  I always suspected that aunt might be a little careless around a live microphone -- now I know...

I've played a lot of organ recitals in places devoid of atmosphere, where the opportunity to breathe some life into the programme through a commentary would have made all the difference.  After all, I spend many hours learning and perfecting the repertoire; part of the process is finding out how a piece fits into the scheme of a composer's creative life, and how it relates to what else was going on.  There's plenty of material to share with the audience, which if delivered with a dash of enthusiasm will draw them into a deeper engagement with the experience.  They might even be prepared to do it again sometime.

I've been to some amazing concerts, where the music did the talking.  Equally, I've been to concerts where the written commentary was enough to provide the signposts for the audience.  I think the bottom line is that musicians are in the communications business, a fact that often goes astray among organists.  If people in the audience don't feel some level of personal connection with the performer, then they're unlikely to find even the best programme, played with the greatest skill and expertise, just a bit dry and unappetizing.

This is where my Ph.D. work is starting to intersect with my default operations as a musician.  My method has been narrative history and biography, storytelling methods par excellence.  Equally, I find that the great pieces of the organ repertoire need to be introduced to audiences anew; it's no good talking about the technicalities of period registration or performance practice if it only has the effect of making the music even more esoteric.  It's surprising how often these subjects are broached in small-town organ recitals, seldom to the benefit of the music.

So, my aim in solo organ recitals is to bring the audience on a little journey via storytelling.  I think the only way to make organ recitals viable to new audiences is to provide spoken commentary that has a firm dash of spice, emphasizing the humanity of the composers and pointing to how this makes their music relevant to listeners in the here and now.