Guest artist Lynne Davis will present the annual Donia Organ Recital at Hope College on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Davis will be performing on both the Pels Gallery Organ and the Skinner Chancel Organ. Performing first on the Pels Gallery Organ, she will play “Toccata in D minor, BuxWV 155,” by Dieterich Buxtehude; variations on the tune “Est-ce Mars?,” by Jan Pieterszoon Sweenlinck; “Orgelbuechlein – O Mensch, beweindeinSuende gross, BWV 622,” by Johann Sebastian Bach; and “Toccata and Fugue in F Major, BWV 540,” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Following intermission, Davis will perform three pieces on the Skinner Chancel Organ: “Pièces de Fantaisie – Toccata,” by Louis Vierne; “Choral III in A minor,” by César Franck; and “Esquisses Byzantines – (Byzantine Sketches)” (“Nef,” “Vitrail,” “Rosace” and “Tuespetra”), by Henri Mulet.
“The New York Times” praised a recent Davis recital as offering “a strong sense of drama, brilliant theatrical contrasts.” The “Diapason” has said, “her easy and refined technical approach at the consol belied the difficulty of the program… performed with a commanding technical control and a refined sense of style and taste.”
A native of Michigan, Davis graduated with honors in organ performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Robert Clark. Shortly after, she moved to France to study with Marie-Claire Alain. While there she also studied with Jean Langlais, Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, and Edouard Souberbielle, as well as other great European master organists. Davis performs extensively and always to enthusiastic critical acclaim both in Europe and North America.
Davis’s career was launched by taking First Prize at the prestigious St. Albans International Organ Competition in England. Since then, her activities have included being a featured performer at two American Guild of Organist national conventions, a member of international organ competition juries, giving concerts, master classes and lectures about French organ literature and its history. Her unique living and working experience in France gives her the status of world authority in all French organ repertoire.
The recital at Hope 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 at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th Street.