Organist Ronald Stalford will present a recital at Hope College on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 3 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The program will feature music by Leo Sowerby
(1895-1968) and Francis Jackson (1917-).
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Stalford is recently retired as organist and
choirmaster of All Saints Church in Worcester, Mass., where
since 1979 he had directed the Choir of Men and Boys, and
the Saint Cecilia Choir of Girls. Founded in 1868 and 1878
respectively, according to Stalford the choirs are believed
to be the oldest choirs in continual service in the United
States.
Stalford is a Fellow of the Washington Cathedral
College of Church Musicians, where his teachers were Paul
Callaway, Preston Rockholt and the founding director,
American composer Leo Sowerby. Stalford is well known for
his association with Sowerby and his music, and is vice
president of the Leo Sowerby Foundation. His other mentors
and teachers include Dr. Francis Jackson (York Minster,
England) and Dr. Alexander McCurdy (Westminster Choir
College, Princeton, N.J.).
Works by Sowerby on the program include "A Wedding
Processional, H. 308," "Carillon, H. 134," "Requiescat in
Pace, H. 159" and "Pageant of Autumn, H. 234." Selections
by Jackson include "Fanfare," "Impromptu for Sir Edward
Bairstow on his 70th birthday, 1944" and "Procession
(1955)."