Organist Peter Stoltzfus will perform
at Hope College on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m. in Dimnent
Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Stoltzfus is minister of music and organist at
Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn Heights, New York
City, where he directs three choirs and oversees the
activities of the music department. He is also active as a
composer, having written several commissioned anthems and
several dozen hymn accompaniment/descant arrangements.
From 1993 to 1995, he was assistant to Dr. Gerre
Hancock at Saint Thomas church, Fifth Avenue, New York. He
previously served as assistant organist at Trinity Church on
the Green in New Haven, and at St. Paul's Cathedral in
Detroit.
Stoltzfus earned the master of music degree from
the Yale University School of Music, and the bachelor of
music degree from the University of Michigan. He also
studied at the 1990 International Summer Organ Academy in
Paris, France.
His principal teachers have been David Bartlett,
Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, Charles Krigbaum, Walden
Moore, Thomas Murray and Carl E. Schroeder. He has been
active on the executive boards of the New York City and
Brooklyn chapters of the American Guild of Organists.
Stoltzfus maintains a regular recital and
accompanying schedule, which has included performances for
national conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the
Association of Anglican Musicians, and has performed widely
along the East Coast.
He has performed at The Alexandra Palace in
London, England, as part of a series of recitals to raise
restoration funds for the instrument there, and has played
for services at Ely Cathedral, Southwell Minster, and Bury
St. Edmunds Cathedral as part of the 1993 tour of the
Trinity, New Haven Boys Choir. He has also played many
other instruments in England, Poland and France, in informal
situations or as part of organ study tours.
The program on January 23 will open with the
"Praeludium in G minor" by Dieterich Buxtehude, and will
continue with the "Allegro" from the "Sonata No. 3 in F
Major" by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Two works by J.S.
Bach, "Hilf Gott, das mirs gelinge" (BWV 624) and "Liebster
jesu, wir sind hier" (BWV 731) will follow, as will the
"Ronde Francaise" by Leon Boellmann. The first portion of
the program will conclude the "Adagio" from "Symphony No. 5"
and "Variations" from "Symphony No. 8," both by Charles-
Marie Widor.
Following an intermission, Stoltzfus will perform
Louis Vierne's "Final" from "Symphony No. 1" and "Pastorale"
from "24 Pieces in Free Style." The program will continue
with "Meditation" on "Picardy" by Leo Sowerby, and a "Gospel
Prelude" on "What a friend we have in Jesus" by William
Bolcom. The program will conclude with three preludes by
George Gershwin.
The recital was made possible through the generous
support of the college's Tom Donia Memorial Organ Fund. The
fund was created in 1990 by family and friends of Tom Donia,
a 1971 Hope graduate who died in 1990. The director of
communications for the American Red Cross, Donia had a life-
long interest in music.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located on the corner
of 12th Street and College Avenue on the campus of Hope
College.